FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Jericho Mountain Lookout

Clearwater County lookout: 55-ft tree platform (1920), 70-ft pole L-6 tower (1932), listed as ruins by 1965. Drive-up site; no current description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as ruins by 1965; no source describes what remains at the site today

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
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower55-foot tree platform (about 1920), later a 70-foot pole L-6 tower (1932)The design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1920
Height
70 ft (21.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Potlatch Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.72365, −116.11922
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-jericho-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 its recorded height.

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. 1915 EventPotlatch Timber Protective Association report refers to 'the Jericho lookout' while describing a new trailSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1917 StaffedAlvin Schuh watching for fires at the lookout station, per the Elk River Sentinel as quoted by Forest LookoutsSources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1920 Built55-foot tree platformSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1921 BuiltTwo lookout cabins constructed, one at Jericho Lookout (The Timberman, February 1921)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1932 Built70-foot pole L-6 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1932 and 1954
  7. 1954 AlteredRepairs made to the tower during the year (Potlatch TPA annual report 1953-54)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1965 EventSite listed as ruinsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  9. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Jericho Mountain sits in Clearwater County.1 The Potlatch Timber Protective Association appears in the lookout's records.1 A 1915 association report already refers to the Jericho lookout while describing a new trail.1 Two lookout sites date the first structure, a 55-foot tree platform, to 1920.2,3 The 1915 mention is earlier, so the site may have been in use before that platform went up.1 In February 1921 The Timberman noted that two cabins had gone up, one of them at Jericho and the other at Elk Butte.1 By 1932 the site had a 70-foot pole L-6 tower.2,3

The only named lookout in the sources is Alvin Schuh, in 1917.3,1 An Elk River Sentinel item dated August 3, 1917, as quoted on Forest Lookouts, has him at the station keeping watch for fires.1

Repairs were made to the tower in 1954.1 By 1965 the site was listed as ruins.2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts describes the site as a drive-up ruin.3 We found no source that describes what remains there now. Nobody we read says whether the land is open to visitors, so check access before going.

  1. Jericho Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/jericho-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Jericho Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/jerichomtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Jericho Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/jericho-mountain-lookout/ (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: 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: agency, 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, height, 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.