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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Moose (Model) Mountain

Also known as Moose Mountain Lookout

Clearwater NF lookout site at 6,603 ft: camp 1918, log cabin 1923, L-4 cab 1931; destroyed in the 1950s, now gone, with no source describing the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in the 1950s (sources give the decade only); no source describes what remains

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site 'Hike-In Destroyed'

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab on a log crib (1931), after a log cabin (1923) and a camp (1918); Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as a 2-story cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.77956, −115.18512
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-moose-model-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 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. 1918 EventCamp at the siteSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1923 BuiltLog cabinSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab on a log cribSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  4. No record between 1931 and 1950
  5. 1950 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.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.

Moose (Model) Mountain is a former lookout site in the Clearwater National Forest, in Clearwater County, Idaho.1 The site sits at 6,603 feet, about six miles northeast of the Kelly Creek Ranger Station.1

A camp stood there in 1918. A log cabin followed in 1923, and in 1931 an L-4 cab went up on a log crib.1,2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the cab as a two-story cab.4

Sources agree the tower was destroyed in the 1950s, though none gives a single year.1,2,3 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today. Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site "Hike-In Destroyed,"2 and the Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as gone.4

  1. Moose (Model) Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/moosemtn271.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Moose Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/moose-mountain-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, Clearwater National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, 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. 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.