Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho
Idaho Point Lookout
Coeur d'Alene NF 20-foot pole L-4 tower, built in 1934 and destroyed in 1971; a 2024 visit found footings and debris at a drive-up site.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1971; a 2024 visit found footings and debris only.
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?
- Yes, you can drive up
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 20 ft (6.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Coeur d'Alene National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Shoshone County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 47.88759, −115.95479
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-idaho-point
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 its recorded height.
Downloads about 3.7 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 Built20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1934 and 1959
- 1959 StaffedJames Melton listed as lookoutSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1971 DestroyedDestroyed in 1971Sources: 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.
Idaho Point is a point in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, in Shoshone County, at 6,505 feet. It lies about 14 miles east-northeast of the Magee Ranger Station.1,2
The lookout went up in 1934 as a 20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,2,3 The L-4 was a 14-by-14 cabin design, and such cabins were produced until 1952.4 The only lookout named in these sources is James Melton, listed for 1959.1,2 The tower was destroyed in 1971.1,2,3
A post dated November 14, 2024, describes finding the remains of the footings, a broken wooden post that may have been a flag pole, and other debris on the rocky outcrop.2 The site lies about a quarter mile from Eighty Peak, and Idaho Fire Lookouts marks it as drive-up.2 No source says whether the site is open to the public.
- Idaho Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/idahopoint244.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/idaho-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Shoshone County - Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/shoshone-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Cabin Architecture, Keeping Watch, University of Idaho, https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/about/cabin-architecture.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: 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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
- Shoshone County - Forest Lookouts (Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- Cabin Architecture (Keeping Watch, University of Idaho) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Idaho Point on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Idaho Point Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.