FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Lakeview Lookout

Bonner County, ID site: a camp in 1924, a 20-foot platform in 1928, a 40-foot pole L-4 tower in 1931, destroyed in 1956. No source describes it today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1956; no source describes what, if anything, remains at the site

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (1931), after a 20-foot platform (1928)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1928
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.96650, −116.42885
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lakeview

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. 1924 EventCamp established at the siteSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1928 Built20-foot platform tower addedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1931 Built40-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1931 and 1956
  5. 1956 DestroyedSources give no causeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, 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.

Lakeview Lookout stood in the Kaniksu National Forest, about a mile east of Lakeview in Bonner County, Idaho.1 The site sits at about 3,950 feet.1,2

The camp came first, in 1924, and a 20-foot platform followed in 1928.1,2,3 In 1931 a 40-foot pole structure topped by an L-4 cab was built.1,2,3 That structure was destroyed in 1956.1,2,3 The Forest Lookouts page credits these dates to Kresek, so agreement among the pages may not be independent.3

Lakeview is not the same place as Lakeview (Wabaningo), another Bonner County lookout farther north.4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists this one as gone.4 The Idaho Fire Lookouts listing calls it a hike-in site.2

None of the pages I read says what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the ground is open to visitors. Check with the Kaniksu National Forest before you go.

  1. Lakeview Fire Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lakeview244.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lakeview Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/lakeview-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lakeview, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/lakeview1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/id-rg/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Lakeview Lookout
Lakeview LookoutPhoto: 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: 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
  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, status, agency, 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.