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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Hershey Point Lookout

Hike-in site in Payette NF: 1932 L-4 ground cabin replaced in 1966 by an R-6 flat-top cab on a 10-foot base; staffed in summer; NHLR-registered 2020.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

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

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in per Idaho Fire Lookouts; a 2024 McCall Life feature describes a hike that climbs 1,600 feet
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 flat topThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
8,232 ft (2,509 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Payette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.31242, −116.12352
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hershey-point

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1932 BuiltL-4 ground cabin, circa 1932Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1956
  3. 1956 First staffedEarliest entry on Idaho Fire Lookouts known staff listSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1966 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1966 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a Region 6 flat-top (R-6) cab on a 10-foot block baseSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1966 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, November 29, 2020Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Hershey Point sits in the Payette National Forest, in Idaho County, Idaho.1,2 It is about 12 miles southeast of Riggins.3

The first lookout here was an L-4 ground cabin, built around 1932.1,3,4 In 1966 the site got a newer structure, a Region 6 flat-top cab on a 10-foot base.1,4 Firelookout.com describes that cab as live-in and says it sits on a 10-foot concrete base.3 The sources do not say what happened to the 1932 cabin.

Idaho Fire Lookouts keeps a list of known staff that starts in 1956.4 Its July 17, 2025 post tags the site as Hike-In Staffed.4 Firelookout.com says the cab is staffed in the summer.3

The National Historic Lookout Register records the lookout as registered on November 29, 2020.1 A 2024 McCall Life magazine feature describes a 10-by-10-foot lookout and a hike that climbs 1,600 feet to reach it.5

Because the site is tagged as hike-in, it is reached on foot rather than by road.4 I could not find a rental listing or visitor rules for it. Check with the Payette National Forest before going, since it is a working, staffed site.

  1. Hershey Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/hershey-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Hershey Point - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hershey-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hershey Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hersheypoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hershey Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/hershey-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Keeping Watch, McCall Life Magazine, https://www.mccalllife.com/keeping-watch/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Hershey Point Lookout - 2019
Hershey Point Lookout - 2019 (2019)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hershey Point Lookout
Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hershey Point Lookout
Photo: US Forest Service, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hershey Point 1932-1966
Hershey Point 1932-1966 (1932)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Richard Holm, via firelookout.com · source
Hershey Point in 2005
Hershey Point in 2005 (2005)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service and Richard Holm, via firelookout.com · source
Hershey Point Lookout
Hershey Point LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, height, photos, 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
  4. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: staffing, 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
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.