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Fire lookout · Valley County, Idaho

Lookout Mountain Lookout

Valley County ground lookout on the Payette NF: a 1933 log cabin, then a 1956 metal cab that was moved to Sheepeater Mountain in 1975 or 1976. No source describes the original site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The cab was moved to Sheepeater Mountain; no source we read describes what remains at the original site.

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cab14-by-14-foot log cabin (1933), replaced in 1956 by a CL-100 metal cab on the groundThe design: CL-100
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Payette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Valley County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.03305, −115.07205
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lookout-mountain-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.9 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 Built14x14 log cabin with frame hip roofSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1956
  3. 1956 Replaced by a new structureMetal CL-100 cab on the ground replaced the cabinSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1956 and 1975
  5. 1975 MovedCab moved to Sheepeater Mountain per the Lookout Mountain pages; the Sheepeater pages give 1976Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.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.

Lookout Mountain Lookout stood in Valley County, on the Payette National Forest.1,2 The site lies inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.1

The first building was a 14-by-14-foot log cabin, built in 1933.1,3,2 In 1956 a metal CL-100 cab replaced it.3 That cab sat on the ground, not on a tower.3,4

Two dates survive for the cab's move. The Lookout Mountain pages say it went to Sheepeater Mountain in 1975.1,3,2 The Sheepeater pages say the metal cab from Lookout Mountain was put in place there in 1976.5,6 The National Historic Lookout Register gives 1976 for the construction of the current Sheepeater cab.7 We cannot settle the year from these sources.

The cab now stands on Sheepeater Mountain.5,6,7 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists that lookout as staffed, and firelookout.com says it is staffed in the summer.5,6 The Register calls it one of the oldest lookouts still in full-time use in the same wilderness.7 Because it is a working lookout, anyone planning a visit should check with the Forest Service first.

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the original Lookout Mountain site, or whether that site is open to visitors.

  1. Lookout Mtn. (Payette N.F.) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lookoutmtn308.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lookout Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/lookout-mountain2.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookout Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/lookout-mountain-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Sheepeater Mountain, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/sheepeater-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Sheepeater Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/sheepeater.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  7. Sheepeater Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, https://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/sheepeater-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Lookout Mountain Lookout
Lookout 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.

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: 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, 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

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