Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho
Kelly Mountain Lookout
Coeur d'Alene National Forest 30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, built 1934 and destroyed 1950; a visitor's page shows footings, and the site is drive-up.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1950; a visitor's site page shows footings, and no source says a tower stands
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.
Access
Open to the public. Idaho Fire Lookouts files it as drive-up on Coeur d'Alene National Forest land; a visitor's page describes gravel roads and a final road that probably calls for a vehicle with some clearance
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- A visitor's site page says the final road up the mountain probably calls for a vehicle with some clearance
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Coeur d'Alene National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Kootenai County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 47.70598, −116.64345
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-kelly-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 4.1 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 Built30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
- 1943 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts names Mamie and Thelma Jardine, citing a 1943 Coeur d'Alene Press itemSource: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1950 DestroyedDestroyed in 1950; no source gives a causeSources: 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.
Kelly Mountain Lookout stood on Kelly Mountain in Kootenai County, six miles northeast of Coeur d'Alene, at 4,085 feet.1,2
Sources agree that a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up in 1934.1,2,3,4 The tower was destroyed in 1950.1,2,3,4
Idaho Fire Lookouts names two sisters, Mamie and Thelma Jardine, as staff and cites a 1943 Coeur d'Alene Press item.2 A La Crosse Tribune item quoted on the Forest Lookouts Kootenai County page describes the Jardine sisters in a second season atop Coeur d'Alene mountain.3 The two accounts name different lookouts, and neither page reconciles them.
Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site as drive-up.2 A visitor's site page describes gravel roads south of Fernan Saddle and says the final road probably calls for a vehicle with some clearance.4 Its photos include three captioned footings, and the page says trees block most of the view from the summit.4 Idaho Lookouts lists the tower as gone.5
- Kelly Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/kellymtn244.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Kelly Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/kelly-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Kootenai County, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/kootenai-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Kelly Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/kelly_mountain/lookout_site_022.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
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: 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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
- Kootenai County (Forest Lookouts) (opens another site)
- Kelly Mountain Lookout Site (WillhiteWeb.com) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Kelly Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Kelly Mountain 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.