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Fire lookout · Idaho

Huckleberry Mountain Lookout

St. Joe National Forest peak lookout: towers from the 1930s-1970s, staffed to 1995, auctioned in 2013 and removed in 2014; footings remain.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Tower removed in October 2014; some timbers and concrete footings remain at the site.

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure 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
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site drive-up.

Facts

Status
Ruins
Type
Type unknown20-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (last structure)The design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho
Coordinates
47.24248, −116.03597
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-huckleberry-mountain-3

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 4.0 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. 1933 Builtfirst lookout, 20-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (date disputed; 1936 in other sources)Sources: firelookout.com, gazetterecord.com
  2. 1936 Built20-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (date disputed; 1933 in other sources)Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 1974
  4. 1974 Rebuilt20-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (1975 in other sources)Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1975 Rebuilt20-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (1974 in other sources)Sources: firelookout.com, gazetterecord.com
  6. No record between 1975 and 1995
  7. 1995 Eventunstaffed after 1995; moved to emergency statusSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1995 Last staffedstaffed through the 1995 seasonSources: firelookout.com, gazetterecord.com
  9. No record between 1995 and 2013
  10. 2013 EventGSA auction; bidding closed October 24, 2013 with a top bid of $425Sources: gazetterecord.com, firelookout.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  11. 2014 Removeddismantled and removed by private owners, October 2014; timbers and footings remainSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, gazetterecord.com
  12. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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.

Huckleberry Mountain sits about 20 miles southeast of St. Maries, in the St. Joe National Forest, at 5,662 feet.1,2

Sources disagree on when the first lookout went up. A fire lookout history page and a newspaper report give 1933. The Idaho Fire Lookouts site and a lookout index give 1936 for a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.2,3,1,4

The tower was later replaced by a 20-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cab. Two sources date that change to 1974 and two to 1975.1,4,2,3 Staffing ended after the 1995 season, when the tower was moved to emergency status.2,3 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page's known-staff list ends with 1979–1980, earlier than that 1995 end date.1,2

Years of vandalism and decay led the Forest Service to call the structure a hazard, and it went to the General Services Administration for sale.3 Bidding closed on October 24, 2013, with a top bid of $425.4,3 The buyers took the tower down, and it was removed in October 2014.2,3,5,4 The new owners say they will move the tower to north central Idaho and put it back up.3,5 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page points to the owners' Facebook page for the rebuild, and I could not confirm from any source I read where the tower now stands.1

What remains on the peak is ruins. A post on the Idaho Fire Lookouts site, dated October 29, 2024, describes some timbers from the R-6 tower and concrete footings from both towers.1 The site's listing carries a drive-up tag.1 Sources do not say who may enter the ground now. One news account says the tower stood on state land, while others name the St. Joe National Forest.3,2,1 Check who owns the land before you go.

  1. Huckleberry Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/huckleberry-mountain-lo/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Huckleberry Mountain Lookout, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/id/huckleberrymtnid.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Huckleberry makes a move, Gazette Record, https://www.gazetterecord.com/news/article_a2d69baa-6509-11e4-a412-47e7d53812c5.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Huckleberry Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/huckleberry-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association, 2014 report (PDF), https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-idnmt-2014.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Huckleberry Mountain Lookout
Huckleberry Mountain LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: name, location, status, 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
  2. 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.