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Fire lookout · Latah County, Idaho

Mason Butte Lookout

Latah County Potlatch lookout begun 1917, with a tower built in the 1930s, staffed until 1986 and removed in 1999; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-6 cabThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1917
Height
67 ft (20.4 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Potlatch Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Latah County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.63329, −116.35959
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-mason-butte

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 its recorded height.

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. 1917 BuiltLog cabin and tree platformSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1917 and 1933
  3. 1933 Built67-foot pole tower with L-6 cab; the 1962 Potlatch report instead gives 1934 and a 90-foot wood towerSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1933 and 1950
  5. 1950 StaffedBob and Phylis Dudley listed as staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1952 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Ash and four children stationed for the summerSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1960 FireTower saved from a 1960 forest fireSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1962 Replaced by a new structurePotlatch report: steel tower purchased from war surplus stocksSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1963 Replaced by a new structureFirelookout.com: 86-foot all-steel towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  10. No record between 1963 and 1980
  11. 1980 StaffedFraser Hubbard listed as staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  12. 1986 Last staffedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  13. 1999 RemovedSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  14. 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.

Mason Butte sits in Latah County, Idaho, at 3,745 feet, about 12 miles northwest of Orofino.1 The Potlatch Timber Protective Association ran the site.2 It began in 1917 with a log cabin and a tree platform.1,2

Two sources date a 67-foot pole tower with an L-6 cab to 1933.1,2 A 1962 Potlatch report says instead that the Civilian Conservation Corps built a 90-foot wood tower in 1934.2 The sources disagree on the height and the date.1,2

Staff included the Ash family, who were stationed there for the summer of 1952.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts also lists Bob and Phylis Dudley around 1950 and Fraser Hubbard in 1980.3 A 1960 forest fire did not destroy the tower.1

Dates for the replacement steel tower also differ. The 1962 Potlatch report says a war-surplus steel tower replaced the old one that year.2 Firelookout.com gives 1963 and an 86-foot steel tower.1 The lookout was staffed until 1986 and removed in 1999.1,3,2

The 1999 removal is the last event the sources record.1,2 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Mason Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/masonbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Mason Butte, Forest Lookouts (western US), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/mason-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Mason Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/mason-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Mason Butte Lookout
Mason Butte LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, agency, 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, height, agency, 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.