Fire lookout · Valley County, Idaho
Morehead Mountain Lookout
Frank Church wilderness lookout: first cabin built and lost to lightning in 1933, L-4 cab 1934; burned in the Boundary Fire on September 9, 2021.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned in the Boundary Fire on September 9, 2021; no source describes a standing structure
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 lists it as a hike-in site; firelookout.com places it 16 miles southeast of Warm Lake
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Ground-level cabR1/L-4 ground cabinThe design: L-4
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 8,516 ft (2,596 m)
- Agency
- Challis National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Valley County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 44.56509, −115.35902
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-morehead-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 3.6 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
- 1933 BuiltOriginal cabin built in 1933Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1933 DestroyedOriginal cabin destroyed by lightning the same yearSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1934 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
- 1934 RebuiltGround-mounted R1/L-4 cab; NHLR Built field gives 1934Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- No record between 1934 and 2014
- 2014 RestoredStabilization work by Treasure Valley Back Country Horsemen and the Salmon-Challis National Forest, reported in the South Idaho chapter 2014 annual reportSource: firelookout.org
- 2015 RestoredRefurbished by a Treasure Valley Back Country Horsemen volunteer crew, per NHLR; removal of a non-original catwalkSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
- 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 2, 2020 as US 1450, ID 143Source: nhlr.org
- 2021 BurnedBurned in the Boundary Fire on September 9Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 2021 DestroyedReported destroyed in the Boundary Fire on September 9, 2021Source: nhlr.org
- 2021 Removed'Removed' field on NHLR detail page: "2021".Source: NHLR register entry
- 2022 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 22, 2022 as US 2080, ID 31Source: firetower.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Morehead Mountain Lookout stood inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, in Valley County, Idaho.1,2 The first cabin was built in 1933, and lightning destroyed it that same year.1,2,3 A ground-mounted L-4 cab replaced it in 1934.2,1
The sources we read do not name anyone who staffed the lookout. Idaho Fire Lookouts says it has not yet documented who staffed this lookout.3
The South Idaho chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association reported stabilization work on Morehead in its 2014 annual report.4 The Treasure Valley Back Country Horsemen and the Salmon-Challis National Forest did the work, and the Southwest Idaho RAC and the Idaho Heritage Trust helped fund it.4 The Register and Idaho Fire Lookouts both date a refurbishment by a Treasure Valley Back Country Horsemen crew to 2015.1,3 The 2014 report describes stabilization work, and the sources do not show whether that and the 2015 refurbishment are the same job.4
The Register reports the Boundary Fire as having destroyed the lookout on September 9, 2021.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the same date and says the lookout burned.3 Firelookout.com dates the loss of the cab to a 2021 forest fire.2
The Register listed the lookout on October 2, 2020, as US 1450, ID 143.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register listed the site on May 22, 2022, as US 2080, ID 31.5
None of the sources we read describes what, if anything, is still standing at the site, so this story does not describe any footings or view. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in lookout that burned.3 Firelookout.com places it 16 miles southeast of Warm Lake.2 We found no current access rules for the site in the sources.
- Morehead Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/morehead-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Morehead Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/morehead.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Morehead Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/morehead-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- South Idaho Chapter 2014 Annual Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-soid-2014.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Morehead Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/morehead-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
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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 whether it still stands.
- FFLA: Gone
- NHLR: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): Gone
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) Gave us: dates, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1450 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLOS register entry US 2080 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports: work on Morehead Mountain Lookout (opens another site)
- Morehead Mountain Lookout - Forest Lookouts Page (opens another site)
- Morehead Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Morehead Mountain Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.