FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Loon Creek

L-4 cab on a log crib at Loon Creek Point, Challis NF; built 1938, last staffed early 1970s, destroyed by a 2007 wildfire. Site today not described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed by a 2007 wildfire; no source describes what remains on the site

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and listed as hike-in; no closure described in the sources

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab mounted on a log crib, ground-mountedThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Challis National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.75339, −114.84846
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-loon-creek

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 3.8 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. 1937 EventCCC enrollees at the Loon Creek spike camp were building a Forest Service lookout, per a 1937 newspaper item quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1938 BuiltL-4 cab on a log cribSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1970
  4. 1970 Last staffedLast staffed full time in the early 1970s (approximate year)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1970 and 2007
  6. 2007 DestroyedDestroyed August 13, 2007 per Forest Lookouts; the 2007 firelookout.org report calls it the only confirmed wildfire loss among the dozens of fire lookouts it says were threatened that yearSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.org, firelookout.com
  7. 2007 FireRed Bluff Fire, named by Forest LookoutsSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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.

Loon Creek Point Lookout stood at about 8,364 feet in the Challis National Forest.1 Its site now lies within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.2

A 1937 newspaper item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, describes Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees at the Loon Creek spike camp who were building a Forest Service lookout and who also tried their luck at finding gold in the creek.3 The sources give 1938 as the build year for an L-4 cab on a log crib, and one describes the cab as ground-mounted.2,3,1

The lookout was last staffed full time in the early 1970s.2,1

A 2007 forest fire destroyed it, according to firelookout.com.2 Forest Lookouts names the Red Bluff Fire and gives the date as August 13, 2007.3 A firelookout.org report on the 2007 season calls it the only confirmed loss from wildfire among the dozens of fire lookouts the report says were threatened that year.4

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in.1 None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, is left on the site today.

  1. Loon Creek Point, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/loon-creek-point/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Loon Creek Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/looncreek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Loon Creek Point, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/loon-creek-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. 2007 chapter reports, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-wdep-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.