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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Hoodoo

Also known as Hoodoo Mountain Lookout

Bonner County, ID lookout: 1923 cupola cabin, a 1930s L-4 tower, abandoned 1935; Idaho Fire Lookouts says the site is now an electronics site with nothing of the lookout left.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Idaho Fire Lookouts says the location is now an electronics site and nothing from the original lookout 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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive-up when the gate is open; higher clearance for the final miles

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower1923 cupola cabin; 1930s tower with L-4 cabThe designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Pend Oreille Timber Protection Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.07868, −116.95338
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hoodoo

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 4.5 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 put on the summitSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 BuiltTower with L-4 cab; sources give only the 1930sSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 AbandonedAbandonedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 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.

Hoodoo Mountain, in Bonner County, Idaho, began its lookout history in 1923, when a cupola cabin went up on the summit.1,2,3,4 In the 1930s a tower with an L-4 cab was built.1,2,3,4 The lookout was abandoned in 1935.1,2,3,4

Idaho Fire Lookouts reports that the spot now hosts electronics, with no trace of the original lookout left.2 Two listings also tie the site to the Pend Oreille Timber Protection Association.1,2

The summit sits at 5,119 feet, and WillhiteWeb reports that tree growth has narrowed much of the view from it.4

Getting to the summit depends on a gate.4 WillhiteWeb says you can drive to the top when the gate is open, though the last miles need higher clearance.4 Whether the public may use that road is not stated on these pages.3,4

  1. Hoodoo Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hoodoo.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hoodoo Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/hoodoo-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Hoodoo - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hoodoo.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Hoodoo Mountain Fire Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb, http://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/hoodoo_mountain/blanchard_034.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Hoodoo Mountain Lookout
Hoodoo 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: design, 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.