FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Lookout Mountain

Shoshone County, ID lookout built 1934 as a 10-ft pole tower with L-4 cab; abandoned 1970 and listed gone; a 2025 visitor found debris and a possible rock structure.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned 1970 and listed as gone; the 2025 visit found debris and a possible rock structure, not a tower

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
Trail
Listed as hike-in; the August 14, 2025 visitor post describes a moderate hike of about 3 miles on a trail frequented by motorcycles

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest (firelookout.com); St. Joe / Clearwater National Forest (Idaho Fire Lookouts)
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.08294, −115.96665
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lookout-mountain

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 3.8 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. 1925 First staffedEarliest name on Idaho Fire Lookouts ('Adams', USFS Photo Collection); predates the 1934 build year on the same pageSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1934 Built10-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, per both sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1967
  4. 1967 StaffedCharles Cartwright (Kellogg Evening News), per Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1969 StaffedWayne Koski, per Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1970 AbandonedBoth lookout pages give 1970 as the abandonment yearSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. No record between 1970 and 2025
  8. 2025 EventVisitor post dated August 14, 2025 found tower debris and a possible rock structure at the siteSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 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.

The Lookout Mountain site is about 14 miles southwest of Avery, in Shoshone County, Idaho, at an elevation of 6,757 feet.1,2 One source places it in the St. Joe National Forest and the other in the St. Joe / Clearwater National Forest.1,2

The lookout went up in 1934 as a 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,2 Its staff list is short.2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page names three people: Adams in 1925, Charles Cartwright in 1967, and Wayne Koski in 1969.2 It credits the 1925 name to a Forest Service photo collection and the 1967 name to the Kellogg Evening News.2 The 1925 entry is older than the 1934 build year on the same page, and the page does not explain the gap.2

The lookout was abandoned in 1970.1,2 The Idaho lookout index now lists the tower as gone.3

A visitor's post dated August 14, 2025 describes the hike in as a moderate trip of about three miles, on a trail that motorcycles also use.2 The writer reported scattered tower scrap, including hinges and window glass, plus cans and bottle pieces.2 The writer also noticed what may be a rock structure, possibly used for cold storage.2 No source we read describes a standing tower there today. Anyone planning a trip should check with the national forest about access before going.

  1. Lookout Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lookoutmtn270.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lookout Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/lookout-mountain-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho lookout index, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Lookout Mountain
Lookout MountainPhoto: 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. 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.