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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Little Blacktail Lookout

Bonner County, ID 40-foot L-4 pole tower, built 1933-35 (sources differ), used for fire detection to 1950, torn down or destroyed 1961-63. An undated WillhiteWeb photo caption says the summit has many towers; no source names them.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Lookout torn down or destroyed in 1961 or 1963 (sources disagree). An undated WillhiteWeb photo caption says the summit has many towers; no source names them or says whether the microwave station remains

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
Trail
WillhiteWeb says to follow FR315 up to the summit and stop short if the road is too rough for the vehicle; avoid gated roads and posted land

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower40-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest (Forest Lookouts); Coeur d'Alene National Forest (firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts)
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.09397, −116.55428
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-little-blacktail

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 4.0 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. 1933 Built40-foot pole tower with L-4 cab. Forest Lookouts and WillhiteWeb give 1933; Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1934 and firelookout.com 1935Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1950
  3. 1950 EventFire detection by the Antelope and later Sandpoint ranger districts ended; tower dropped from the Kaniksu detection systemSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1952 EventIdaho state forestry used the tower for fire detection under a special use permit, 1952-1958Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1959 EventForest Service used the tower only to house a short-wave radio relay station (1959-1960)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1961 DestroyedTorn down and razed; site turned over to Pacific Gas Transmission Co. for a microwave station. Two 1961 newspaper items quoted by Forest Lookouts and WillhiteWeb agreeSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  7. 1963 DestroyedDate given by firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; disputed by the 1961 sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 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.

Little Blacktail Lookout stood on Little Blacktail Mountain, 7 miles north of Bayview in Bonner County, Idaho, at 4,467 feet.1 A 1961 newspaper item quoted by Forest Lookouts places the tower east of Careywood.2

The sources disagree on when it went up. firelookout.com gives 1935, the Idaho Fire Lookouts site gives 1934, and Forest Lookouts and the WillhiteWeb history give 1933.1,3,2,4 All four describe a 40-foot tower of the L-4 type.1,3,2,4 Forest Lookouts places it in the Kaniksu National Forest, while firelookout.com names the Coeur d'Alene National Forest.2,1

The Antelope ranger district and later the Sandpoint ranger district used the tower for fire detection until 1950. It was then dropped from the Kaniksu detection system, because other lookouts gave better coverage and reliance on airplanes was growing.2 From 1952 through 1958 Idaho state forestry used it for fire detection from Athol to Sandpoint, under a special use permit from the Forest Service. Once the state built its own tower on Long Mountain, it no longer needed this one.2

In 1959 and 1960 the Forest Service used the tower only to house a short-wave radio relay station. The tower was then judged surplus and dangerously deteriorated, and its site went to Pacific Gas Transmission Co. for a microwave station.2,4

The sources disagree on when it came down. Two 1961 newspaper items quoted by Forest Lookouts, and the WillhiteWeb history, say it was torn down or razed that year.2,4 firelookout.com and the Idaho Fire Lookouts site both date its destruction to 1963.1,3

WillhiteWeb says the microwave station was installed.4 One of its undated photo captions says the summit has many towers and little to see from it.4 No source we read says what those towers are, or whether the microwave station is among them. We found no source that says whether the summit is open to the public.

WillhiteWeb's hiking guide says FR315 leads up to the summit, and that drivers can stop short if the road is too rough for their vehicle. It also says to avoid roads that are gated or posted with trespassing signs.4 The Idaho Fire Lookouts site files the site as drive-up.3 Little Blacktail Ranch Park, a community of 61 homeowners, lies on the mountain's gentle slope.5

  1. Little Blacktail Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/littleblacktail.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Little Blacktail, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/little-blacktail.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Little Blacktail Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/little-blacktail-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Little Blacktail Mountain, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/little_blacktail_mountain/pictures_048.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Welcome to Little Blacktail Ranch Park, Little Blacktail Ranch Park HOA, http://www.littleblacktail.org/ (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: 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, 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.