FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Adams County, Idaho

Kinney Point

Kinney Point on the Payette National Forest: camp in the 1920s, L-4 cab built 1932, burned 1951; now a Forest Service interpretive site with a sign.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in 1951; the site is a Forest Service interpretive stop; no source describes what, if anything, of the lookout remains

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. Forest Service interpretive site with a large wooden sign

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Rocky, rough spur road; Forest Service says passenger cars are not recommended; no restrooms or potable water

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (1932)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Payette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Adams County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.16640, −116.66370
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-kinney-point

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1920 EventCamp at the site, 1920s (decade only)Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltL-4 cab (cabin) constructedSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1932 and 1951
  4. 1951 BurnedBurned per Forest Lookouts; firelookout.com says gone 1951; Idaho Fire Lookouts says destroyed 1951Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1953 EventJuly 1953 Hells Canyon celebration at Kinney Point; more than 1,000 expectedSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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.

Kinney Point is in Adams County, Idaho, about 25 miles southwest of Riggins, on the Payette National Forest.1

The site was a camp in the 1920s.1 An L-4 cab went up there in 1932, according to Forest Lookouts and firelookout.com.2,1

The lookout burned in 1951.2 Firelookout.com lists it as gone that year, and Idaho Fire Lookouts lists 1951 as destroyed.1,3

A July 1953 newspaper item said more than 1,000 people were expected at Kinney Point for a Hells Canyon celebration.2 The regional head of the Forest Service was to be the main speaker.2

Today the spot is a Forest Service interpretive site overlooking Hells Canyon, with a large wooden sign about the place.4 The spur road is rocky and rough, and the Forest Service advises that passenger cars are not recommended.4 Restrooms and potable water are not available there.4

No source describes what, if anything, of the lookout itself remains.

  1. Kinney Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/kinneypoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Kinney Point, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/kinney-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Kinney Point, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/kinney-point/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Kinney Point Interpretive Site, Payette National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/payette/recreation/kinney-point-interpretive-site (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Kinney Point
Kinney PointPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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

  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: 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.