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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Lookout Ridge Lookout

Kootenai County, ID site: camp 1922, log cupola cabin built 1924, destroyed about 1950 and listed gone; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed about 1950 (firelookout.com) or in the 1950s (Idaho Fire Lookouts); listed as gone by firelookout.org

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
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site hike-in; no source read describes the route or what remains at the site

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabLog cupola cabin; two patrol points nearbyThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.78145, −116.39107 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lookout-ridge

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 4.5 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

  1. 1922 EventEstablished as a campSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1924 BuiltLog cupola cabin builtSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1929 StaffedMiles Standish listed for 1929 on Idaho Fire Lookouts, citing Bert RussellSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1929 and 1950
  5. 1950 DestroyedAbout 1950 per firelookout.com; the 1950s per Idaho Fire LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 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.

Lookout Ridge was a lookout site about 13 miles east of Hayden Lake in Kootenai County, Idaho, on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, at 5,292 feet.1,2

The lookout here was a cabin.1,2 The site began as a camp in 1922, and a log cupola cabin went up on it in 1924.1,2 The site also had two patrol points: one a mile to the southeast and one 2.5 miles east, both atop Leiberg Peak.1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Miles Standish as a staff member in 1929, citing a work by Bert Russell about the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene.2

Firelookout.com puts the loss at about 1950, while the Idaho Fire Lookouts page gives the 1950s.1,2 The firelookout.org index now marks the site as gone.3

No source we read describes what remains at the site today. Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site a hike-in.2 Anyone who wants to look for it should check current access with the Coeur d'Alene National Forest before going.

  1. Lookout Ridge Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lookoutridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lookout Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/lookout-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho lookout index, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Lookout Ridge Lookout
Lookout Ridge LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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 970 m.

    • FFLA: 47.78145, −116.39107
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 47.77519, −116.38213

    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: dates, 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, 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.