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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Lemonade Peak

Shoshone County lookout: L-4 cabin in 1934, R-6 cab on a 10-foot concrete base by 1962, abandoned 1973; a Forest Service trail now reaches the old site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1973; firelookout.com also lists it as destroyed

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 Trail 555, a 3.3-mile single-track route, reaches the old lookout site from a trailhead at the end of Road 748; conditions vary by season and weather

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
3.3-mile single-track trail 555 from the southern trailhead at the end of Road 748

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab (1934); R-6 flat cab on a 10-foot concrete base from 1962The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.38445, −116.18698
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lemonade-peak

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. 1934 BuiltL-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1962
  3. 1962 AlteredR-6 flat cab on a 10-foot concrete baseSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1967 StaffedClaude Irwin named as a known staffer, per the Kellogg Evening NewsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1973 AbandonedAbandoned in 1973; firelookout.com later calls it destroyedSources: 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.

A lookout on Lemonade Peak in Shoshone County received an L-4 cabin in 1934.1,2,3 By 1962 the cab was an R-6 design sitting on a 10-foot concrete base.1,2,3 The R-6 measures 15 by 15 feet, and its flat roof overhangs the deck to shade it.4

The listings do not agree on the forest. Firelookout.com places the peak in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, while Forest Lookouts names the St. Joe National Forest.1,3 A Forest Service trail page puts the route on the St. Joe Ranger District.5 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page names one known staffer, Claude Irwin, for 1967, citing the Kellogg Evening News.2

The lookout was abandoned in 1973.1,2,3 Firelookout.com also lists the tower as destroyed.1 A patrol point sat 1.5 miles southwest, atop Trout Point.1,2

The old lookout site can still be reached on foot. Forest Service Trail 555 is a 3.3-mile single-track route that climbs gradually from its southern trailhead, which sits at the end of Road 748.5 The Forest Service says some of the finest wildflower displays are on the ridge in early June, and that wildflowers are the trail's main draw.5 The Forest Service also notes that access to the trailhead varies with the season and weather.5

No source describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout itself.1,2,5

  1. Lemonade Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lemonadepeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lemonade Peak, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/lemonade-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lemonade Peak, Forest Lookouts (western US), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/lemonade-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Cabin Architecture, Keeping Watch, University of Idaho, https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/about/cabin-architecture.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Lemonade Peak Trail #555, USDA Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/idahopanhandle/recreation/trails/lemonade-peak-trail-555 (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. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, 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, 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.