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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Little Baldy

Idaho County Little Baldy: about 1930 30-foot L-4 pole tower on the Nez Perce NF, standing 1959, gone by 1963 (Nez Perce list says abandoned 1950); drive-up; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1963 per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; the Nez Perce list dates abandonment to 1950; no source describes the site today

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?
Yes, you can drive up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.93654, −115.68354
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-little-baldy-2

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

  1. 1930 BuiltBuilt about 1930; 30-foot pole L-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. No record between 1930 and 1950
  3. 1950 EventNez Perce list: Status abandoned, 1950 on the row's second line; conflicts with 1959 standingSource: fs.usda.gov
  4. 1959 Condition assessmentVerified standingSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1963 EventGone by 1963Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Little Baldy was a lookout on the Nez Perce National Forest, about 14 miles northwest of Elk City, in Idaho County.1,2 It stood at an elevation of 5,363 feet.1,2

Built about 1930, it was a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,2 The Forest Service's list of Nez Perce lookouts gives a 30-foot L-4 tower dated 1930 plus or minus.3

Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts both say the tower was still standing in 1959 and was gone by 1963.1,2 The Forest Service list gives a different date: it lists the site as abandoned in 1950.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as drive-up.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout today, or says whether the site is open to the public.1,2

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list also includes a separate Little Baldy in Shoshone County, so readers should not mix the two.4

  1. Little Baldy Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/littlebaldy.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Little Baldy Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/little-baldy-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.