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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Hudlow Mountain Lookout

Kootenai County, Idaho Coeur d'Alene NF lookout with an L-4 cab in 1931, known staff in 1946, gone by 1952; a land trust describes remains at the crest.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1952; a land trust describes remains of a Forest Service fire lookout at the crest.

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.81605, −116.67655
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hudlow-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 4.2 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. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab recorded for 1931 on all three history pages; the build date itself is not statedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1946
  3. 1946 StaffedMr. and Mrs. William Bush listed as known lookout personnel; Idaho Fire Lookouts cites a Kellogg Evening News itemSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1952 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  5. 1952 EventListed as gone in 1952; the lists do not give a causeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.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.

Hudlow Mountain lies about a mile northeast of Hayden Lake in Kootenai County, on Coeur d'Alene National Forest land, at 3,395 feet.1 The Forest Lookouts listing gives its location only as a township-range-section code, 52N-3W-35.2

The lookout is recorded with an L-4 cab in 1931.1,3,2

The only known staff listed are Mr. and Mrs. William Bush, in 1946.1,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts ties that entry to a Kellogg Evening News item.3

Both history pages mark the tower gone by 1952.1,3

The Inland Northwest Land Conservancy says Hudlow Mountain rises over the east side of Hayden Lake and that its summit still holds what is left of a Forest Service fire lookout.4 The sources do not describe those remains in more detail, and I found nothing on whether the summit is open to visitors.

  1. Hudlow Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hudlowmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hudlow Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Idaho Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hudlow-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Hudlow Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/hudlow-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Hayden Lake, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, https://inlandnwland.org/hayden-lake/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: dates, 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: what it is built of, 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.