FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Nelson (Mill Creek)

Also known as Nelson Point (Mill Creek) Lookout

Payette NF L-4 ground cab on Nelson Point, Idaho County; destroyed in 1966 by burning in place. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1966; the ground house was removed by burning in place. 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?
Unknown
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in; no source gives a current route or access status

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 ground cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Payette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.35007, −115.58131
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-nelson-mill-creek

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. 1930 EventUniversity of Idaho archive photo of the Mill Creek Lookout is dated 1930, earlier than the 1934 cab dateSource: lib.uidaho.edu
  2. 1934 BuiltL-4 cab, per two sitesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1966
  4. 1966 BurnedGround house removed by burning in placeSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1966 DestroyedDestroyed, per two sitesSources: firelookout.com, 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.

Nelson Point, also called Mill Creek, was a lookout in Idaho County about eight miles northeast of Warren, in the Payette National Forest.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels it a hike-in site, and the site is listed at 6,902 feet.1,2

Two sites date its L-4 cab to 1934.1,2 One site calls the cab a ground house.3 A University of Idaho archive photograph of the Mill Creek Lookout carries a 1930 date, four years before the cab's date, so the sources disagree on when the lookout stood.1,2,4

The lookout was destroyed in 1966.1,2 One site adds that the ground house was taken down by burning it where it stood that year.3

No source described for this story says what, if anything, remains on the point today, or whether visitors can reach it. Anyone curious about the spot should check with the Payette National Forest before setting out.

  1. Nelson (Mill Creek) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/nelsonmill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Nelson Point (Mill Creek) Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/nelson-point-mill-creek-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nelson (Mill Creek) - Forest Lookouts, Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts (western US), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/nelson-mill-creek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Mill Creek Lookout (Nelson Point), Archival Idaho Photograph Collection, University of Idaho Library, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/archivalidaho/items/archivalidaho647.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Nelson Point (Mill Creek) Lookout
Nelson Point (Mill Creek) 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: 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, agency, ownership, 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, 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.