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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Orofino Creek Lookout

Clearwater County lookout: crow's nest about 1914, a 1930 pole tower, then a 1934 50-ft L-4 tower; removed (or destroyed) in 1962. No source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in the fall of 1962 per the Clearwater TPA report; firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts say destroyed

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 50-ft pole tower (from 1934)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1914
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.47294, −115.92391
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-orofino-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1914 BuiltCrow's nest tree platform, the first lookout hereSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1923 EventTent cabin addedSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1930 Built55-ft pole tower with 5x5 cabSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 Replaced by a new structure50-ft tower with L-4 cab replaced the 1930 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1934 and 1954
  6. 1954 EventMaintenance work on the lookout structureSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1962 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  8. 1962 RemovedClearwater TPA report: unused that season and removed in the fall; firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts say destroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 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.

Orofino Creek Lookout stood in Clearwater County, Idaho.1,2 Forest Lookouts lists the agency as the Clearwater Timber Protective Association, while firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts give it as Clearwater-Potlatch TPA.1,3,2 Its first lookout was a crow's-nest tree platform, about 1914, and a tent cabin was added in 1923.1

In 1930 a 55-foot pole tower with a 5-by-5-foot cab went up.1,2 In 1934 a 50-foot tower with an L-4 cab replaced it.1,3,2 Forest Lookouts also records maintenance work on the structure in 1954.2

The sources disagree about how the tower ended. A combined 1961–62 Clearwater TPA annual report, as quoted by Forest Lookouts, says the tower was removed in the fall of 1962. It had been in poor condition and unused that season because detection methods had improved.2 Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts say it was destroyed in 1962.1,3

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Orofino Creek Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/orofinocreek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Orofino Creek, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/orofino-creek.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Orofino Creek Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/orofino-creek-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Orofino Creek Lookout
Orofino 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: design, height, agency, 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, height, status, agency, 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.