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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Otter Butte Lookout

A 30-foot L-4 tower on the Nez Perce National Forest, built about 1934 and destroyed in 1955; no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1955; no source describes what, if anything, remains at the site

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 labels the site hike-in

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot tower with L-4 cab, at the west pointThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.03313, −115.18173
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-otter-butte

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 3.9 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. 1934 BuiltAbout 1934 (the Forest Service list gives 1934 +/-); 30-foot tower with L-4 cab at the west pointSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. No record between 1934 and 1955
  3. 1955 DestroyedDestroyed in 1955Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  4. 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.

Otter Butte's lookout was a 30-foot tower with an L-4 cab, built at its west point.1,2,3,4 Forest Lookouts dates it to about 1934, and the Forest Service list gives the same year as an approximate date.3,4

The site lies in the Nez Perce National Forest, roughly 14 miles west-southwest of the Moose Creek ranger station.1,3 Forest Lookouts gives its land location as 31N-10E-11.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives its elevation as 6,088 feet.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association places it at 46.03313 north, 115.18173 west.5

The tower was destroyed in 1955.1,2,3,4

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the tower as gone.5 None of the sources we read describe what, if anything, remains at the site, or whether it is open to visitors.1,2,3,4 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site hike-in, so it is reached on foot.2

  1. Otter Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/otterbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Otter Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/otter-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho County (M-W), Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/idaho-county-m-w.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: 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. 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.