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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Hamilton Mountain Lookout

Kootenai County ground site: a cupola cabin built about 1923 and destroyed in 1950; a 2024 Idaho Fire Lookouts post found only footings and a benchmark.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cupola cabin destroyed in 1950; a September 2024 Idaho Fire Lookouts post found a benchmark, a location post and patrol platform footings

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cab14 x 14 cupola cabin, log (one source says log and frame), with a patrol platform half a mile southThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.87606, −116.34181
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hamilton-mountain

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.3 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1923 BuiltCupola cabin on the northernmost point, about 1923; log, or log and frameSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1926 BuiltPatrol platform; Idaho Fire Lookouts thinks its footings read 1926 (carvings in the cement; the writers are unsure of other lettering)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1926 and 1950
  4. 1950 DestroyedCupola cabin destroyed; cause not stated in the sources readSources: firelookout.org, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1950 and 2024
  6. 2024 Condition assessmentIdaho Fire Lookouts post dated September 30, 2024: benchmark and location post found at the cabin site, patrol platform footings foundSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Hamilton Mountain is in Kootenai County, Idaho.1 It sits on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, about eight miles southeast of Lakeview.2,3

Around 1923 a cupola cabin went up on the northernmost point of the peak.2,3,4 Most sources call it a log cabin, though one says log and frame.2,3,4 A patrol platform stood half a mile south.2,3,4

Idaho Fire Lookouts dates the patrol platform to 1926, reading what it thinks is that year in carvings in the cement footings.4 The writers rate the evidence as pretty strong, though they are unsure what some of the other carvings say.4 The other sites date only the cabin, to about 1923.2,3

The cabin was destroyed in 1950, and the lookout is now listed as gone.1,2,3,4

When Idaho Fire Lookouts visited, they found little at the cabin site beyond a benchmark and a location post.4 At the patrol platform they found cement footings with writing in them.4 The site is labeled a hike-in.4 No source we read describes the site after that visit, and none says whether the land is open to visitors, so check with the Coeur d'Alene National Forest before you go.

  1. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hamilton Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hamiltonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Hamilton Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hamilton-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Hamilton Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/hamilton-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Hamilton Mountain Lookout
Hamilton Mountain LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: photos, links idahofirelookouts.com · No licence stated; facts only (coordinates, status/built/destroyed year parsed from each entry's short excerpt). Thumbnail photos mirrored with credit per the project's photo policy. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: agency, ownership, links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.