Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho
Nut Basin Lookout
Nez Perce NF two-story frame cupola cabin, built 1927 and destroyed 1957; a June 2006 SummitPost photo caption says only remnants are left, without describing them.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1957; a June 2006 SummitPost photo caption says only remnants are 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?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- 4WD road to the summit, per the climbing guide
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Two-story buildingD-6 frame cabin with cupola, two-storyThe design: D-6
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1927
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Nez Perce National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Idaho County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 45.52801, −116.17389 sources disagree
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-nut-basin
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 3.4 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
- 1915 First staffedEarliest staffing named: Wm. Brown as lookout man, per a July 8, 1915 Idaho County Free Press itemSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahoaclimbingguide.com
- 1927 BuiltElevated cupola frame cabin built on the summitSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, summitpost.org
- No record between 1927 and 1957
- 1957 DestroyedDestroyed in 1957Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, summitpost.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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Nut Basin lookout stood about 10 miles northeast of Riggins, in Idaho County, on the Nez Perce National Forest.1 A fire lookout was in use there as early as 1915.2 A July 8, 1915 item in the Idaho County Free Press named Wm. Brown as the lookout man, as quoted on Rex's Fire Lookout Page.3
The cabin went up in 1927 as an elevated cupola cabin.1,4,5,2 A Forest Service history page places it among four D-6 frame lookouts on the forest that were topped with a cupola.6 The Idaho list calls it a two-story cabin.7
It was destroyed in 1957.1,3,5,2
The newest description found is a June 2006 SummitPost photo caption, which says only remnants of the lookout are left, without describing them.5 Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site as drive-up.4 The climbing guide describes a four-wheel-drive road to the summit, reached from Nut Basin Road, and it does not mention a permit or closure.2
- Nut Basin Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/nutbasin.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Peak 7741 (Nut Basin Lookout), IDAHO: A Climbing Guide, https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/peak-7141-nut-basin-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nut Basin, Forest Lookouts (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/nut-basin.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nut Basin Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/nut-basin-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Old Lookout Foundation, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/old-lookout-foundation/599701 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nez Perce-Clearwater Fire Lookouts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/nezperce-clearwater/recreation/discover-history/nez-perce-clearwater-fire-lookouts (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
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 the location by 520 m.
- FFLA: 45.52801, −116.17389
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 45.53267, −116.17458
The map uses the position from FFLA.
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- 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 LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- 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
- Nez Perce-Clearwater Fire Lookouts (U.S. Forest Service) (opens another site)
- Old Lookout Foundation (SummitPost) (opens another site)
- Peak 7741 (Nut Basin Lookout) (IDAHO: A Climbing Guide) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Nut Basin on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Nut Basin Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- Nut Basin on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.