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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Pot Mountain Lookout Site

Clearwater County lookout site: a 1919 cabin, replaced by a hip-roofed L-4 cab in 1934, now abandoned and listed as gone with no source describing the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned, and a regional list marks it gone. No source gives the year it was abandoned or lost, and none describes the site today.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Idaho Fire Lookouts tags it Hike-In. We found no closure notice and no route description.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts tags it Hike-In. firelookout.com places it seven miles west of Kelly Creek R.S.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabHip-roofed L-4 cab (1934) on a rock base about 14 by 14 feet, replacing a 1919 cabinThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1919
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,139 ft (2,176 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.73543, −115.40755
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-pot-mountain

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. 1914 EventA telephone line was to be extended toward Pot Mountain, which a newspaper called possibly one of the very best lookout points in the Clearwater countrySource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1919 BuiltFirst lookout: a 12-by-12-foot cabin of whipsawed lumber with a map board on the roofSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1925 StaffedBob Elliott and Turk Oliver listed as known staff. The register does not date the foundation work they did in one summer.Sources: firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1934 Built'Built' field on FFLOS detail pageSource: FFLOS register entry
  5. 1934 Replaced by a new structureHip-roofed L-4 cab built about 500 feet south of the 1919 cabin, on a rock baseSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1934 and 2022
  7. 2022 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 22, 2022, nominated by Rod FosbackSource: firetower.org
  8. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Pot Mountain lookout site is in Clearwater County, Idaho, on the Clearwater National Forest.1 The first lookout there was a 12-by-12-foot cabin of whipsawed lumber, built in 1919 with a map board on its roof.1,2,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the board was reached by ladder.1

A 1914 newspaper item, quoted on a lookout history site, said a telephone line would be extended toward Pot Mountain.4 The item also said the peak might rank among the finest lookout spots in the Clearwater country.4

In 1934 a hip-roofed L-4 cab replaced that first cabin, about 500 feet to the south.1,2,3 The register says two lookouts, Bob Elliott and Turk Oliver, spent their free hours during a single summer blasting and winching rock by hand for the base, which measured 14 feet square. The register does not date that work.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Elliott and Oliver as known staff in 1925.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts calls the lookout abandoned, and a regional list marks it gone.2,3,5 None of these gives a date for when that happened.

The register describes the site's history and coordinates but says nothing about what remains there. We found no source that describes the site today.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as a hike-in.3 Firelookout.com places it seven miles west of Kelly Creek R.S.2 We found no closure notice and no route description.

  1. Pot Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/pot-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pot Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/potmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Pot Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/pot-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Pot Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/pot-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, alphabetical list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

1934 L-4 site
1934 L-4 site (1934)Photo: Rod Fosback, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.