FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Hot Springs Point

Idaho County lookout: 1929 L-4 cabin on Clearwater NF, destroyed 1956; no source describes what remains at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1956; no source describes what remains at the site.

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabin (Forest Service list says only cabin)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.47004, −114.83953 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hot-springs-point

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 3.6 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. 1929 BuiltCabin, called an L-4 cabin by two sources; about 7 miles WSW of Powell Ranger StationSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. No record between 1929 and 1956
  3. 1956 DestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  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.

Hot Springs Point stood in Idaho County, about seven miles west-southwest of Powell Ranger Station, on Clearwater National Forest land.1,2,3 The Forest Service list places it in Section 9, Township 36 North, Range 13 East.2 A cabin went up there in 1929.1,4,2,3 firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts call it an L-4 cabin, while the Forest Service list gives only "Cabin."1,4,2

The Forest Service list gives the site an elevation of 5,535 feet.2

The cabin was destroyed in 1956, a date all four sources give.1,4,2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site under its Selway region and lists it as hike-in.4 The Forest Lookouts list for Idaho County agrees on the 1929 and 1956 dates.3 Today, no source we read describes what remains at the site, or whether visitors may go there.

  1. Hot Springs Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/id/hotspringspoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho County (A-L), Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/idaho-county-a-l.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Hot Springs Point, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/hot-springs-point/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 760 m.

    • FFLA: 46.47004, −114.83953
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 46.47686, −114.83956

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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: 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. 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.