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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Horton Ridge Lookout

Boundary County lookout: 1932 log cabin, 1934 40-foot L-4 tower; cabin moved 1970, tower removed 1977; site is now a trailhead with a footing.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower came down in 1977; the site is now a trailhead with a footing and a parking area.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Described as a popular trailhead for Selkirk peaks; no closure mentioned. Higher-clearance vehicle needed for the final half mile.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Lower-clearance cars park at the saddle about half a mile below the site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Priest Lake Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.60790, −116.73573
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-horton-ridge

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. 1932 BuiltLog cabin at the lookout siteSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1934 Built40-foot pole L-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1970
  4. 1970 MovedLog cabin moved to the Kinner place on Priest LakeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1977 RemovedTower came downSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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.

Horton Ridge rises in Boundary County, Idaho, about 10 miles north-northeast of Coolin.1 The Priest Lake Timber Protective Association is listed as the lookout's agency.1,2 In 1932 there was a log cabin at the lookout site.1,3,4 In 1934 a 40-foot pole L-4 tower was built there.1,3,4 The summit sits at 6,091 feet.3,4

The cabin left the ridge in 1970, when it was moved to the Kinner place on Priest Lake.1,3,4 The tower was taken down in 1977.1,3,2,4

The tower is gone.4 Photo captions on Willhite's page name a footing at the site, and another caption refers to a parking area for the trail to Mount Roothaan.4 Willhite says the site is a popular starting point for hikes to several Selkirk peaks.4 He says the final half mile needs a higher-clearance vehicle, and lower-clearance cars can park at the saddle about half a mile below.4 The road offers some views of Priest Lake before the site.4 Willhite does not mention any closure.4 No source we read gives a current access rule for the site.

  1. Horton Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/id/hortonridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Horton Ridge, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/horton-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Horton Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/horton-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Horton Ridge Lookout, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/horton_ridge/priest_lake_038.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Horton Ridge Lookout
Horton Ridge 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, 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, access, 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

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