Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho
O’Hara Point Lookout
Idaho County, ID 20-foot L-4 tower on the Nez Perce NF, built 1935 (Nez Perce list: 1934, plus or minus) and destroyed about 1955; no source describes what remains at the site today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed 1955 per firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Nez Perce NF list; the Idaho County list says c.1955; the Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks it Tower 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?
- Yes, you can drive up
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower20-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1935
- Height
- 20 ft (6.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Nez Perce National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Idaho County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 46.00343, −115.48152
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-ohara-point
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 3.8 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
- 1935 Built20-foot tower with L-4 cab; firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Idaho County list give 1935; the Nez Perce NF list gives 1934 (plus or minus)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
- No record between 1935 and 1955
- 1955 DestroyedDestroyed; all four lookout listings give 1955 (Idaho County list: c.1955)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
- 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.
O'Hara Point was a lookout on the Nez Perce National Forest, about 25 miles southeast of Kooskia in Idaho County.1,2,3,4
All four listings describe a 20-foot L-4 tower.1,2,3,5 Three of them date it to 1935.1,2,5 The Nez Perce National Forest list gives 1934, plus or minus.3
All four listings put the loss in or about 1955.1,2,3,5 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the tower as gone.4
Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site under "Drive-Up."2 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or says whether the site is open to visitors.
- O'Hara Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/oharapoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- O'Hara Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/ohara-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho County (M-w) - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/idaho-county-m-w.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
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, 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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 National Forest Lookouts (USDA Forest Service) (opens another site)
- Idaho County (M-w) - Forest Lookouts (Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com)) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- OHara Point on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- O’Hara Point 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.