Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho
Howe Mountain Lookout
Kaniksu National Forest L-4 tower near Clark Fork, Idaho, built around 1934 and destroyed in 1961; no source describes the site today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1961; 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?
- No, you have to hike
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Kaniksu National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Bonner County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 48.19013, −116.21965
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-howe-mountain
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 4.3 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
- 1934 BuiltTower with L-4 cab; firelookout.com gives 1934, Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1934 L-4 Tower, and Forest Lookouts Idaho gives c.1934Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1937 StaffedItem quoted by Forest Lookouts Idaho links Floyd Hamilton to the lookout in September 1937; his job is not statedSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1937 and 1961
- 1961 DestroyedAll three sources date the destruction to 1961Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Howe Mountain lookout stood about three miles north-northwest of Clark Fork, in the Kaniksu National Forest.1 The site is listed at 3,835 feet.2 The Forest Lookouts Idaho page gives the site code 56N-2E-21.3
The tower dates to around 1934 and carried an L-4 cab.1,2,3
A September 1937 item in the Northern Idaho News, quoted on one lookout history page, says that Floyd Hamilton was visiting home from the Howe Mountain lookout that week.3
All three sources give 1961 as the year the tower was destroyed.1,2,3
Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site under its Northern Idaho listings and lists it as a hike-in, so visitors reach it on foot.2 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout today.
- Howe Mountain Lookout, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/id/howemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Howe Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/howe-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Howe Mountain, Forest Lookouts Idaho, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/howe-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) Gave us: dates, 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: design, agency, ownership, 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
- 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
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Howe Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Howe Mountain Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Howe Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.