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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Marble Mountain Lookout

Coeur d'Alene TPA camp in 1920, Forest Service from 1923, L-4 tower in 1939; the tower is gone, and an August 2025 trip report found no footings, only ruins.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower is gone. An August 2025 trip report found no tower footings, only the ruins of a cabin and a scant amount of other ruins at 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
In an August 2025 trip report, a hiking party walked the last stretch after a large section of road was still under deep snow.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1939
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.15075, −116.03253 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-marble-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1920 EventCoeur d'Alene Timber Protective Association campSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1923 EventForest Service takes over the site in springSources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 EventLookout Clair Cory killed by lightning while staffing; the staff list gives 1927 or 1928Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 BuiltL-4 towerSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Coeur d'Alene Timber Protective Association set up a camp on Marble Mountain in 1920.1,2 The summit sits at 6,300 feet, about 13 miles southwest of Avery.2 The Forest Service took over the site in the spring of 1923.1,3 The association's annual report said the agency fixed the station up into a modern one, though the association felt it had gained little from the change.3

The L-4 tower went up in 1939.1,2,3 The site also has a sad chapter. A 19-year-old lookout, Clair Cory, was killed by lightning while staffing the mountain.1 The Idaho lookout site's staff list places him there in 1927 or 1928.1 A December 1928 newspaper report, quoted by an Idaho lookout list, spells the name Corey and says he was on Marble Mountain when he was struck.3

The tower is listed as gone.2,4 An August 2025 trip report says a hiking party reached the peak on foot because a large stretch of road was still under deep snow.1 They searched for the tower's footings and tie-downs and found none.1 They did find the ruins of a cabin, along with a scant amount of other ruins at the site.1 The sources do not say whether the site is open to visitors now.

  1. Marble Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/marble-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Marble Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/id/marblemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shoshone County, Forest Lookouts, Idaho Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/shoshone-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Marble Mountain Lookout
Marble Mountain 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 700 m.

    • FFLA: 47.15075, −116.03253
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 47.15195, −116.02346

    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: 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.