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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Lunde Peak Lookout

Clearwater County L-4 cab lookout built 1930 (or 1931) and removed or destroyed in 1963; no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed or destroyed in 1963; no source describes what remains of the 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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in; no route or current access rules found in the sources read

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (14 x 14 ft precut frame house, per Idaho Fire Lookouts)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.62243, −115.04690
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-lunde-peak

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 4.0 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. 1930 BuiltBuilt by Bill Simmons and Earl Williams per Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts also gives 1930. Firelookout.com and USFS list give 1931 (see resolved_conflicts)Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1930 and 1960
  3. 1960 StaffedKnown staff entry: Roger C Garrett, credited to a former lookout registrySource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1963 RemovedRemoved per Idaho Fire Lookouts and Forest Lookouts; Firelookout.com and the USFS list say destroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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.

Lunde Peak Lookout stood about 12 miles southeast of Kelly Creek R.S., in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, in Clearwater County, Idaho.1,2 Firelookout.com calls it Clearwater National Forest, and Idaho Fire Lookouts calls it Kanisku National Forest.1,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts says Bill Simmons and Earl Williams first built the lookout in 1930.3 The Forest Lookouts page also gives 1930, for an L-4 style house.2 Firelookout.com and the Forest Service's Clearwater list give 1931 for the L-4 cab, so the sources disagree on whether it went up in 1930 or 1931.1,4

Idaho Fire Lookouts describes the L-4 as a precut frame house, 14 by 14 feet, with wooden panels that shaded the windows in summer.3 The site's known staff entry is Roger C Garrett for 1960, which Idaho Fire Lookouts credits to a former lookout registry.3

The lookout came down in 1963. Firelookout.com and the Forest Service list say it was destroyed that year, while the Forest Lookouts page and Idaho Fire Lookouts say it was removed.1,3,2,4

Elevation is also reported two ways: 6,367 feet on Firelookout.com and in the Forest Service list, and 6,844 feet on Idaho Fire Lookouts.1,3,4

None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, remains of the site today.1,3,2,4 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in, so a visit means walking in.3 The sources do not say whether the site is open to visitors, so check with the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest before going.2

  1. Lunde Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/lundepeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Lunde Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/lunde-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lunde Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/lunde-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (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. 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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, 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.