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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Hughes Ridge Lookout

Boundary County lookout: a 1926 crow's nest, a tower of about 1933, then the present 41-foot timber tower with L-4 cab built in 1953; hike-in and staffed in summer.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Listed as hike-in by Idaho Fire Lookouts.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2021)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,189 ft (1,277 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.86687, −116.98631
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hughes-ridge

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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. 1926 BuiltA crow's nest tree lookout on the site, plus one for patrol four miles to the north.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1932 EventA Spokane newspaper item, reprinted by Forest Lookouts, describes a station on 60-foot poles under construction near Hughes Meadows. It is not reconciled with the 1933 L-4 date.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 Built40-foot L-4 tower erected about 1933.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1953
  5. 1953 BuiltPresent 41-foot timber tower with L-4 cab, per Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com. The register calls it a 41-foot wooden tower but gives no build year.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1965 StaffedVern Marschall staffed the lookout in the summers of 1965 and 1966.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1967 StaffedKenneth Perkins listed as lookout personnel.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  8. 1970 StaffedJean Duncan listed as a known staffer.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 1977 StaffedJanelle Peek spent a summer working as a Forest Service lookout there, per a 1977 Coos Bay newspaper item reprinted by Forest Lookouts.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1977 and 1995
  11. 1995 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterListed on the National Historic Lookout Register, August 1, 1995.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  12. 2007 RestoredSafety upgrade work was started.Source: firelookout.org
  13. 2009 RestoredUpgrades were under way, with the lookout expected to be ready for 2010 staffing.Source: firelookout.org
  14. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The site began in 1926 with a crow's nest in a tree, plus a second for patrol four miles to the north.1,2 A 1932 Spokane newspaper item, reprinted on the Forest Lookouts history site, describes a new station on poles 60 feet high under construction near Hughes Meadows.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com instead date a 40-foot L-4 tower to about 1933, and the sources do not reconcile the two accounts.1,2 The present tower went up in 1953.1,2 The register calls it a 41-foot wooden tower with a 14-by-14-foot live-in cab.4

The lookout sits in an out-of-the-way part of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, which the register says is home to woodland caribou and grizzly bears.4 Named lookouts include Vern Marschall, who staffed it in the summers of 1965 and 1966, Kenneth Perkins in 1967 and Jean Duncan in 1970.4,1,2 In 1977 a Coos Bay newspaper item, reprinted on the Forest Lookouts site, describes Janelle Peek taking a summer job as a Forest Service lookout there.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com name the Kaniksu National Forest instead.1,2

The register listed the lookout on August 1, 1995, and describes it as the last surviving L-R tower in Boundary County.4,1 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it as a hike-in staffed lookout.1 Firelookout.com reports summer staffing.2

  1. Hughes Ridge, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/hughes-ridge/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Hughes Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/hughes.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hughes Ridge, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hughes-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hughes Ridge Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/hughes-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hughes Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hughes Ridge Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hughes Ridge in 1933
Hughes Ridge in 1933 (1933)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1933
Hughes Ridge in 1933 (1933)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1938
Hughes Ridge in 1938 (1938)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge L.O. interior
Hughes Ridge L.O. interiorPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1944
Hughes Ridge in 1944 (1944)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1953
Hughes Ridge in 1953 (1953)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1953
Hughes Ridge in 1953 (1953)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge in 1999
Hughes Ridge in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, the U.S. Forest Service, and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Hughes Ridge
Hughes RidgePhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, dates, photos, 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
  4. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: staffing, 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
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, staffing, 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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