FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Mallard Peak Lookout

A 1929 L-4 prototype cab on the Clearwater/Idaho Panhandle boundary, abandoned in the late 1950s and volunteer-restored since 1981.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Hike-in only, no road access; located in the Mallard-Larkins Pioneer Area.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Foot access only, within a roadless non-motorized trail area.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1956 or 1957 (sources disagree))

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 (one of the 1929 prototype cabs for the design)The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,801 ft (2,073 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.93756, −115.52468
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-mallard-peak

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 4.1 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. 1914 EventFirst lookout camp established at Mallard Peak, manned by Red Stewart for at least 5 years.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1914 and 1929
  3. 1929 BuiltGround cabin built as one of the prototype cabs leading to the L-4 design.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1929 and 1956
  5. 1956 Last staffedNHLR states last staffed in 1956.Source: nhlr.org
  6. 1957 AbandonedOther sources give 1957 as decommissioning/abandonment year.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. No record between 1957 and 1981
  8. 1981 RestoredInitial stabilization by Don Mathis, Ray Kresek, and volunteers; Kresek unofficially staffed it that summer.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 1992 EventInland Empire Llama Association began providing annual maintenance support.Source: nhlr.org
  10. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, November 25, 1996.Source: nhlr.org
  11. 2008 RestoredRestoration started with a Labor Day weekend work project after the chapter bought paint and supplies when Forest Service funds were cut.Source: firelookout.org
  12. 2009 AlteredTim Grubham and family did restoration work with USFS approval.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  13. 2009 RestoredChapter supported continued restoration work.Source: firelookout.org
  14. 2010 RestoredChapter members took part in restoration work.Source: firelookout.org
  15. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Mallard Peak has had a lookout of some kind since 1914, when a watchman named Red Stewart first manned a camp here and stayed on the job for at least five years.1 The ground cabin that still stands today went up in 1929, and it was no ordinary building: it was one of the prototype cabs that the Forest Service used to work out the design that became the famous L-4 lookout house, later mass-produced by the thousands and shipped out in kits on mule trains.2 It was built by a ranger and crew from the old Pole Mountain Ranger District of the St. Joe National Forest, a district whose name, like the forest's, has since been folded into today's Clearwater and Idaho Panhandle National Forests.2

The lookout sits on the boundary between those two forests, inside what is now the Mallard-Larkins Pioneer Area, a roadless stretch of divide country between the North Fork and Little North Fork of the Clearwater River.2,1 A second, patrol-only lookout once stood about two and a half miles away on Martin Peak.1 Sources differ by a year on when staffing ended: the National Historic Lookout Register says Mallard Peak was last staffed in 1956, while other accounts give 1957 as the year it was decommissioned or abandoned.2,3,1

After standing empty for roughly two decades, the cabin was stabilized in 1981 by former lookout Don Mathis, Ray Kresek, and a group of volunteers; Kresek reportedly stayed up there unofficially that summer.2,1 Since 1992 the Inland Empire Llama Association has packed in supplies for annual upkeep, and in 2009 Tim Grubham and his family did further restoration work with Forest Service approval.2,1 The lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 1996 and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.2

Mallard Peak is not staffed and is reachable only on foot, with no vehicle access.1 It isn't set up as a rental, so anyone visiting should treat it as a historic structure to view and respect rather than a place to move into for the night.

  1. Mallard Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/mallard-larkins-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Mallard Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/mallard-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Mallard Peak, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/mallardpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mallard Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mallard Peak restored west side 8/30/08
Mallard Peak restored west side 8/30/08Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mallard Peak restored north side 8/31/08
Mallard Peak restored north side 8/31/08Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mallard Peak south and east sides 8/31/08
Mallard Peak south and east sides 8/31/08Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Certificate awarded for Mallard Peak restoration
Certificate awarded for Mallard Peak restorationPhoto: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Mallard Peak Lookout
Photo: Jesse Haynes, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mallard Peak in 1981
Mallard Peak in 1981 (1981)Photo: the Dave Bula collection and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Mallard Peak in 2014
Mallard Peak in 2014 (2014)Photo: the Dave Bula collection and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Mallard Peak in 2014
Mallard Peak in 2014 (2014)Photo: the Dave Bula collection and Luke Channer, via firelookout.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. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists 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
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, dates, 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
  4. 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
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports 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
  6. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  9. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

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