FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Long Mountain Lookout

Spades Mountain steel tower moved to Idaho's Long Mountain station in 1963-64, sold in 1998 and moved to private land east of Spokane; no tower is described at the site now.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Dave Kresek

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. Sold and moved in 1998 to private land east of Spokane, Washington; the Long Mountain site is listed as Tower Gone

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor MC-40 steel tower (1964 listing); 54 ft with a 12 x 12 wood cabin (1998 sale notice)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1941
Height
54 ft (16.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Idaho Department of Lands
Land
Unknown
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.07989, −116.71415 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-long-mountain

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.2 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. 1941 BuiltSteel tower erected on Spades Mountain, Coeur d'Alene National Forest, Idaho; firetower.org gives it 54 ftSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  2. No record between 1941 and 1959
  3. 1959 EventNewspaper item: a new forestry lookout station on Long Mountain nearing completion; the item does not mention the Spades towerSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1960 StaffedAnnounced to be manned from July 1 by Larry Eaton and his wife of SandpointSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1963 MovedMoved from Spades Mountain to Long Mountain; 1963 per firetower.org and Idaho Fire Lookouts, 1964 per the NHLR and the Forest Lookouts pageSources: firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com, nhlr.org
  6. 1967 StaffedJoyce Sprinkle of Tucson began work as fire lookout; latest staffing in these sourcesSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. No record between 1967 and 1998
  8. 1998 MovedIdaho Dept. of Lands offered the tower for sale, removal required by Sept 30, 1998; sold to Dave Kresek and moved to his property east of SpokaneSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  9. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 20, 1999 as US 329, WA 35 (Kresek Fire Tower)Source: nhlr.org
  10. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Dave Kresek.Source: FFLA
  11. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. 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.

The steel tower that later stood on Long Mountain was first erected on Spades Mountain in 1941, on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, as a 54-foot tower.1,2 The Idaho Department of Lands received it and moved it to Long Mountain, south of Sandpoint, in 1963 or 1964. Sources give both years.1,2,3,4

A July 1959 newspaper item reported that a new forestry lookout station on Long Mountain was nearing completion.3 The sources do not agree on the tower's size once it reached the mountain. A 1964 listing gives 46 feet for an Aermotor MC-40 steel tower, while a 1998 sale notice describes 54 feet with a 12-by-12 wood cabin.3

The Sandpoint News Bulletin reported in 1960 that the lookout would be manned from July 1 by Larry Eaton and his wife of Sandpoint.3 The latest staffing in these sources is 1967, when Joyce Sprinkle of Tucson began work as the fire lookout in the observation tower that the State Department of Forestry ran on Long Mountain.3,4

In 1998 the Idaho Department of Lands offered the tower for sale, and the buyer had to remove it from the site by September 30, 1998.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts says Dave Kresek bought it that year and moved it to his private property.4 Firelookout.com places the new site east of Spokane.5

The tower now stands on 30 acres of private land east of Spokane, Washington.1,5 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as a 50-foot Aermotor with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, and it was registered there in 1999.1 Visits are arranged in advance through the Fire Lookout Museum.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the Long Mountain site as 'Tower Gone.' No source describes what, if anything, remains there now or whether the site is open to the public.6

  1. Kresek Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/kresek-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Spades Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, https://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/spades-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Long Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/long-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Long Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/long-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Long Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/longmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Long Mountain Lookout
Long Mountain 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 570 m.

    • FFLA: 48.07989, −116.71415
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 48.07657, −116.70825

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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, height, agency, 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, 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.