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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Kelly Mountain

Idaho County Kelly Mountain: 1930 tree platform, 40-foot L-4 pole tower built 1938, destroyed 1958; drive-up; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1958; no source describes 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 tower40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.42264, −116.11289
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-kelly-mountain-2

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 3.6 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. 1930 BuiltFirst used with a 100-foot tree platform and a log cabinSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1938 Built40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1958
  4. 1958 DestroyedDestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 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.

Kelly Mountain Lookout stood on Kelly Mountain in Idaho County, about ten miles east of Riggins, at an elevation of 4,737 feet.1,2,3 The site lay within the Nez Perce National Forest.2

The site was first used in 1930, when a 100-foot tree platform and a log cabin stood there.1,2 In 1938 a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up.1,2

Pete Pomeroy set his book The Mallory Burn at the lookout.1,2 The book was later made into a Wonderful World of Disney television special titled Fire on Kelly Mountain.1,2

The tower was destroyed in 1958.1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as drive-up.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or says whether it is open to visitors.1,2

A different Kelly Mountain, in Kootenai County, appears on the Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list at separate coordinates, so the two should not be confused.4

  1. Kelly Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/kellymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Kelly Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/uncategorized/kelly-mountain-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (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. 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.