FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Hunt Peak Lookout

Boundary County, ID ground cabin on Hunt Peak in the Kaniksu National Forest; camp 1927, L-4 cab 1931, abandoned 1935. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1935 and listed as gone; no end year given

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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 ground cabin (gable roof, per the Forest Lookouts page)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.55687, −116.69941
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-hunt-peak

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 3.9 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. 1927 EventCamp established on the peakSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1927 StaffedMr. Ashbaugh listed for 1927, citing a USFS photo collectionSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab (gable-roof ground cabin per the Forest Lookouts page)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1931 StaffedMr. Ryder Chronic listed for 1931 to 1932Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1935 AbandonedQuickly abandonedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1935 EventCCC crew on Hunt Peak, foreman from Big Creek Camp F-127, running a telephone line to the lookout tower, per a 1935 photo recordSource: lib.uidaho.edu
  7. 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.

Hunt Peak sits in Boundary County, Idaho, about nine miles northeast of Coolin, in the Kaniksu National Forest.1 A camp was set up on the peak in 1927, and an L-4 cab was built there in 1931.1,2 The Forest Lookouts page describes the 1931 cabin as a gable-roofed ground cabin of the L-4 type.3

The Idaho Fire Lookouts site names Mr. Ashbaugh for 1927, citing a Forest Service photo collection, and Mr. Ryder Chronic for 1931 and 1932.2 A 1935 photo in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Idaho collection shows a Hunt Peak crew, with a foreman from Big Creek Camp F-127, running a telephone line to the lookout tower.4

The lookout was abandoned in 1935.1,2 The firelookout.com page marks the cabin as gone and gives no end year, only a question mark.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the peak as a hike-in site.2 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, or whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Hunt Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/huntpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hunt Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/hunt-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Hunt Peak, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/hunt-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. CCC Construction Crew, Civilian Conservation Corps in Idaho Collection, University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/cccidaho/items/cccidaho289.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Hunt Peak Lookout
Hunt Peak LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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, 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
  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, 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.