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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Johnson Peak Lookout

Bonner County, Idaho, lookout built around 1937 as a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab and destroyed in 1955; no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1955; no source describes what, if anything, remains on the peak

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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1937
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.10300, −116.26394
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-johnson-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.3 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. 1937 BuiltAround 1937 as a 40-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (Forest Lookouts gives c.1937)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1937 and 1955
  3. 1955 DestroyedDestroyed in 1955 per all three guidesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 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.

Johnson Peak Lookout stood on a peak in Bonner County, Idaho, about five miles southwest of Clark Fork.1,2,3 The Coeur d'Alene National Forest is the agency listed for the site.1,4

The tower went up around 1937 as a 40-foot pole structure with an L-4 cab.1,4,2 It was destroyed in 1955, a year that all three guides give.1,4,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as a hike-in.4 The Lookout Structures list on firelookout.org marks the tower as gone.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts describes no remains and says nothing about current access, so no source we read tells a visitor what, if anything, is still on the peak or whether the site is open to the public.4

  1. Johnson Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/johnsonpeak244.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Johnson Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/johnson-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookout Structures list (Idaho), firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Johnson Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/johnson-peak-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: 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: design, height, 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, 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.