Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho
Lookout Mountain Lookout (Custer County)
Also known as Lookout Mountain, Chase Lookout
L-4 cab on a 9,954 ft White Cloud peak in Sawtooth NRA: built 1933, emergency use from the 1970s, saved and restored 1985-89, NHLR-listed 2016.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Summit reached on foot by a difficult five-mile (one-way) trail; no rental or overnight use for the cab found in the sources read. Lookout is on emergency status.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- Five miles one way, rated difficult, from the trailhead at the end of forest road 626, reached by driving 9.4 miles on Highway 75 from Stanley. No water on the trail. Watch the weather: the summit is dangerous in lightning storms.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabL-4The design: L-4
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 9,923 ft (3,025 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service (Sawtooth National Recreation Area per NHLR)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Custer County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 44.19263, −114.75890
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-lookout-mountain-custer-county
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 3.5 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
- 1933 BuiltL-4 cab built.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
- No record between 1933 and 1961
- 1961 EventThe later restorer was a former lookout staff member in 1961 (NHLR); which lookout he staffed is not stated in the sources read.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1970 EventMoved to emergency status in the 1970s; firelookout.com says used for emergencies into the 1970s.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
- No record between 1970 and 1985
- 1985 EventSlated to be burned; a former 1961 lookout contacted the Forest Service and the cab was saved from demolition.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1989 RestoredRestored by a former 1961 lookout staff member: repaired hardwood floors, door, two shutters, catwalk and steps, and painted.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
- No record between 1989 and 2006
- 2006 Condition assessmentForest heritage program was preparing a preservation plan, to include a National Historic Lookout Register nomination.Source: firelookout.org
- 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register on November 27, 2016; nominated by Luke Channer.Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Lookout Mountain Lookout is an L-4 ground cab on the summit of a peak in the White Cloud Mountains, inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in Custer County, Idaho.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com both date the cab to 1933.3,4
The sources say little about who staffed it. The National Historic Lookout Register notes that the man who later restored the tower had been a lookout staff member in 1961, and Idaho Fire Lookouts has no documented staffing history for the site.1,3
By the 1970s the lookout had moved to emergency status, and firelookout.com says it was used for emergencies into that decade.3,4
In 1985 the cab was slated to be burned.1 A former 1961 lookout contacted the Forest Service, and Idaho Fire Lookouts says the cab was saved from demolition.1,3 He restored it in 1989, fixing its wooden floors, door, shutters, catwalk and steps, then painting it.1,3
The National Historic Lookout Register added the lookout on November 27, 2016, with Luke Channer as the nominator.1
Reaching the summit takes a hike. From Stanley, the route runs 9.4 miles on Highway 75, then follows forest road 626 to its end and a trailhead. The trail is about five miles one way and rated difficult.5 Wikipedia says a maintained trail goes to the summit.2 Sawtooth Trails warns that the peak is dangerous during lightning storms, so watch the weather.5
Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as a hike-in on emergency status, and the sources I read describe no rental or overnight use for the cab.3
- Lookout Mountain Lookout (Custer County), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/lookout-mountain-lookout-custer-county/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Lookout Mountain (Idaho), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookout_Mountain_(Idaho) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Lookout Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/lookout-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Lookout Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lookoutmtn319a.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Lookout Mountain 647, Sawtooth Trails, https://sawtoothtrails.com/lookout-mountain.php (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports (opens another site) Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1146 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Lookout Mountain (Idaho) (Wikipedia) (opens another site)
- Lookout Mountain - #647 (Sawtooth Trails) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: work on Lookout Mountain Lookout (Custer County) (opens another site)
- Lookout Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Lookout Mountain Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Lookout Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 1411254054 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.