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Fire lookout · Latah County, Idaho

McGary Butte Lookout

Latah County, ID: a 50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab built 1935, reported a burning bridge in 1939, repaired 1960, and destroyed in 1970.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1970 per firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Forest Lookouts page; the state index lists it as gone

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 tower50-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Potlatch Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Latah County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.78060, −116.35880
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-mcgary-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 4.2 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. 1935 Built50-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1939 FireLookout reported a bridge on the Three Bear main line burning in July 1939; seven bents of the bridge destroyed; bridge finished July 21. Story from The Family Tree, a Potlatch Forests newspaper, reprinted on the Forest Lookouts page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 1960
  4. 1960 AlteredExtensive repairs to the lookout tower, per the Potlatch Timber Protective Association annual reportSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1970 DestroyedDestroyed; no source gives the causeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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.

McGary Butte, in Latah County about eight miles west of Elk River, got a 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab in 1935.1,2,3 The operator is named two ways. The Forest Lookouts page gives the Potlatch Timber Protective Association,3 while firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts list only the initials CTPA.1,2

In July 1939 the lookout reported a fire on a bridge along the Three Bear main line.3 A story from The Family Tree, a Potlatch Forests newspaper and reprinted on the Forest Lookouts page, says the fire destroyed seven bents, the framed supports of the bridge, and burned for over six hours.3 On July 21 the bridge was complete, and the first log train crossed it again.3

The tower received extensive repairs in 1960, according to the Potlatch Timber Protective Association's annual report.3 It was destroyed in 1970.1,2,3 The state index lists the site as gone.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at McGary Butte today, or whether the site can be reached.

  1. McGary Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/mcgarybutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. McGary Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/mcgary-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. McGary Butte - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/mcgary-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts (Alphabetical List), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (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, 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, status, 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.