FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Lookout Butte Lookout

Lookout Butte's 1962 R-6 cab on the Nez Perce National Forest replaced two earlier structures and is now a Forest Service recreation rental.

Visit & stay

You can rent this lookout for overnight stays through recreation.gov.

Season
to mountain biking and off-road vehicles

Overview Lookout Butte has a history that spans nearly 80 years and has been home to three lookout towers. The first, built in 1923, was 45 feet tall with just a platform on which to stand. A cabin was put on the tower a couple years later. In 1935, a 50-foot tower was constructed. A new tower was built beside the old one in 1962, and this is currently available for rent. The current 60-foot wooden tower offers panoramic views and the perfect setting for enjoying the area's tranquility and natural beauty. Guests can enjoy the scenery from the exterior catwalk or from inside the single-room cabin. Recreation Several primitive roads in the area are open to mountain biking and off-road vehicles. Other activities in the area include hiking through second-growth forest and birding. Facilities The lookout has room for up to four people and comes with two twin beds with foam mattresses and two cots. Other amenities include a propane stove and oven, a table and chairs, a broom, a bucket and a mop. A pit toilet sits downhill to the south of the lookout, and there's a campfire ring near the base. Guests should be prepared to haul supplies up five flights of stairs. Guests are required to bring their own drinking water. Other recommended supplies include food, sleeping bags or bedding, coolers, cookware and utensils, dishes, warm clothing and rain gear, flashlights, extra batteries, first aid kit, matches, toilet paper, garbage bags and the combination for the lookout and gate. Click here for more information about this lookout. Natural Features The lookout sits at 5,869 feet in elevation with breathtaking views of the Selway Crags in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area, the Seven Devils Mountain Range, Coolwater Ridge, Pilot Knob Lookout and the Lochsa and Selway River drainages. Nearby Attractions Guests can take a sightseeing drive from Lowell to Selway Falls and back. This 42-mile drive offers opportunities to appreciate the pristine beauty of the Selway River, a Wild and Scenic River, as well as picturesque Selway Falls.

Noted: Maintenance Closure 2026

This comes from the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s rentals list. Check with the manager or the booking page before you plan a stay.

Book on recreation.gov

Rental details from recreation.gov, checked 12 Oct 2026. The closure note comes from the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s rentals list. Rules, fees and seasons change, so confirm on the booking page before you go. Data source: ridb.recreation.gov

Access

Open to the public. Available through the Forest Service recreation rental program; book before visiting.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Reached via roads serving the Moose Creek Ranger District.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6The designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
55 ft (16.8 m)
Elevation
5,869 ft (1,789 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.04583, −115.65972 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 12 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lookout-butte

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.

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. 1923 BuiltFirst lookout: a 45-foot pole tower.Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1925 AlteredA cab was added to the 1923 pole tower.Source: nhlr.org
  3. 1935 Replaced by a new structure50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab built.Source: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1935 and 1962
  5. 1962 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  6. 1962 Replaced by a new structureCurrent 15x15 R-6 flat-top cab with catwalk built on a 55-foot timber tower.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  7. No record between 1962 and 2009
  8. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, April 6, 2009.Source: nhlr.org
  9. No record between 2009 and 2026
  10. 2026 EventAvailable for rental through the Forest Service recreation program.Source: nhlr.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The first lookout on Lookout Butte, on the Nez Perce National Forest, was a simple 45-foot pole tower put up in 1923, with a cab added two years later.1 That gave way in 1935 to a 50-foot pole tower topped with an L-4 cab, the standard wood-frame design the Forest Service used across the region in that era.1 The structure on the summit today dates to 1962: a flat-roofed R-6 cab, 15 feet square and ringed by a catwalk, mounted atop a 55-foot timber tower that replaced the aging L-4.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts, which tracks staffing histories for the region's towers, says it has not yet documented who staffed Lookout Butte over the years.2 That gap doesn't mean the tower went unused — only that the record hasn't surfaced yet.

The lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 2009.3 It still stands on the Moose Creek Ranger District, and rather than being abandoned or torn down when fire detection shifted to aircraft and cameras, it found a second life: the Forest Service now rents it out through the recreation rental program, letting visitors stay overnight in the cab.1,4

Access today is by whatever road or trail serves the Moose Creek Ranger District; anyone wanting to visit should book through the recreation rental system rather than show up unannounced, since it is an active rental cabin, not open to climb at will.

  1. Lookout Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/lookout-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Lookout Butte, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/lookout-butte/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Lookout Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/lookout-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Lookout Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lookoutbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lookout Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lookout Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout Butte 1925-1935
Lookout Butte 1925-1935 (1925)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte 1925-1935
Lookout Butte 1925-1935 (1925)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte 1935-1962
Lookout Butte 1935-1962 (1935)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte in 1989
Lookout Butte in 1989 (1989)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte in 2019
Lookout Butte in 2019 (2019)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte in 2019
Lookout Butte in 2019 (2019)Photo: Gary Weber and Rex Kamstra, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Butte
Lookout ButtePhoto: 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 64 km (40 mi).

    • NHLR: 46.04583, −115.65972
    • recreation.gov: 45.48934, −115.87457

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1962
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1962
    • recreation.gov: 1923

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access, rental details, links Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association: lookout rentals Gave us: rental details, links Forest Fire Lookout Association rentals list (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only (state, name, booking link, manager, closure note), no prose copied. The FFLA says it is not involved in managing any rental program. · retrieved 12 Oct 2026
  5. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, photos, 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
  6. 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
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  9. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.