FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Hemlock Butte

Clearwater County lookout 12 miles ENE of Bovill with a run of crow's nest, cabin, platform and tower structures from 1914; destroyed in 1969.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1969; no source describes what remains

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?
Unknown
Trail
No source describes access to the site today

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower74-foot L-6 tower, the last structure in the recordThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1914
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.91649, −116.15487
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hemlock-butte

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 4.2 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. 1914 BuiltCrow's nestSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1917 BuiltLog cabinSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1923 BuiltPlatformSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1926 Built50-foot pole tower, listed as 7x7 feetSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1934 Built74-foot L-6 towerSource: firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1934 and 1969
  7. 1969 DestroyedDestroyed; the record gives no causeSource: firelookout.com
  8. 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.

The Hemlock Butte lookout in Clearwater County stood at 5,861 feet, about 12 miles east-northeast of Bovill.1 Its record begins with a crow's nest in 1914, followed by a log cabin in 1917 and a platform in 1923.1 A 50-foot pole tower, listed as 7 by 7 feet, came in 1926, and a 74-foot L-6 tower followed in 1934.1 The record ends in 1969 with the lookout destroyed.1

No source describes what remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.

A separate Hemlock Butte, at 6,053 feet, is staffed every summer on the Clearwater National Forest.2 Its elevation differs from the 5,861 feet of the lookout described above.1,2 Its present 53-foot tower was built in 1954.2

  1. Hemlock Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hemlockbutte269b.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hemlock Butte Fire Lookout Tower (staffed lookout), firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hemlockbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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.