Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho
Kings Pass
Kings Pass lookout, Coeur d'Alene NF: 40-foot pole L-4 tower built 1934, gone in the 1950s; footings, debris and an unidentified antenna remain.
- Gone
- Restricted access
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Both sites date its loss to the 1950s; footings, debris and a large microwave or antenna tower remain at the site.
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.
Access
Restricted access
Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Idaho Fire Lookouts says the access road is gated and visitors walk a few miles from the pass. It does not say the site is closed.
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- Hike-in: the gated road means a walk of a few miles from the pass.
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower40-foot pole L-4 tower on the west end of the ridgeThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 40 ft (12.2 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Coeur d'Alene National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Shoshone County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 47.64059, −115.95595
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-kings-pass
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
- 1934 Built40-foot pole L-4 tower on the west end of the ridge; both sites date it to 1934Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1934 StaffedHenry Johnson listed as known staff, citing a Wallace Press-Times item of 06/07/1934Source: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1935 StaffedAbe Curley listed as known staff, citing a Wallace Press-Times item of 06/25/1935Source: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1937 StaffedRoy Norman listed as known staff; the Idaho list gives no citation for 1937Source: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1950 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.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.
Kings Pass is a ridge site in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, about 10 miles north-northwest of Wallace in Shoshone County, at 4,404 feet.1,2
A 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up on the west end of the ridge in 1934.1,2
The Idaho Fire Lookouts site lists three known staff members: Henry Johnson in 1934, Abe Curley in 1935 and Roy Norman in 1937.2 The first two entries cite Wallace Press-Times items from June of those years.2
Both sites date the tower's loss to the 1950s.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks Kings Pass as gone too.3
Today the site is a hike-in.2 The road is gated, so visitors walk a few miles from the pass to the point where the lookout once stood.2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts visit found scattered debris, old footings and some classic number 9 wire.2 The most conspicuous feature is a large microwave or antenna installation that appears much newer than the lookout era.2 The writers could not establish whether it was ever a Forest Service electronics site, or whether another agency used it.2 The page describes the gate but does not call the site closed.2
- Kings Pass Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/kingspass.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Kings Pass, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/kings-pass/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (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: dates, 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, access, 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
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Kings Pass on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Kings Pass 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.