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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Pulaski

Also known as Mount Pulaski

Pole lookout tower on Mount Pulaski above Wallace, Idaho, built 1934 and abandoned 1946; only footings and a 1958 benchmark remain on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned 1946; a 2026 WillhiteWeb visit found only the footings and a 1958 benchmark

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Route runs mostly over private timber land; WillhiteWeb says hiking seems allowed for now by Stimpson Timber Company

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
A driving route gets within half a mile; the final half mile is an ATV track (WillhiteWeb, 2026)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; patrol platform tower down the ridgeThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.46085, −115.96623
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-pulaski

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. 1934 Built50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; patrol platform tower down the ridgeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 First staffedFrank Manning listed as known staff (Idaho Fire Lookouts, citing the Wallace Press-Times)Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1935 StaffedErnest Milot listed as known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1936 EventSpokane Chronicle item dated September 4, 1936: lookout called in because rain and cool weather had minimized the danger of forest firesSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1937 StaffedFred Dickinson listed as known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1946 AbandonedAbandoned 1946 per all four sourcesSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1946 StaffedThomas W. Lane listed as known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1954 EventAerial images show a standing tower (WillhiteWeb)Source: willhiteweb.com
  9. 1958 Destroyed1958 description calls the lookout station destroyed (WillhiteWeb quotes the USGS benchmark description); no source gives a removal dateSource: willhiteweb.com
  10. 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.

Mount Pulaski overlooks the town of Wallace in Shoshone County, Idaho.1,2 The site falls under the Coeur d'Alene National Forest.1,3 The peak is named for Ed Pulaski.2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page describes him as a Forest Service ranger who rescued 40 men in the 1910 Great Fire.3

The lookout went up in 1934 as a 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab.1,4 A patrol platform tower stood farther down the ridge.1

The Idaho Fire Lookouts page names four people who staffed it: Frank Manning in 1934, Ernest Milot in 1935, Fred Dickinson in 1937, and Thomas W. Lane in 1946.3

In September 1936, a Spokane Chronicle item reported that Forest Service officials had called the lookout in, because rain and cool weather had reduced the danger of fire.4,2

The tower was abandoned in 1946.1,3,4 The WillhiteWeb page says aerial images from 1954 show a standing tower.2 It also says the USGS placed a benchmark in 1958 and wrote that the lookout station had been destroyed.2 The Forest Lookouts page instead credits a 1958 station description to the Coast and Geodetic Survey, so the two pages name different agencies for it.4,2

WillhiteWeb visited in 2026 and found only the footings, along with the 1958 benchmark.2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts writer, who posted on June 25, 2025, also found the footings and a benchmark, and described the summit as fairly tidy.3

Access depends on which route you take. The Idaho Fire Lookouts writer says a vehicle reached the site.3 The WillhiteWeb page describes a driving route that gets within half a mile, followed by an ATV track for the final stretch. It says most of the route crosses private timberland, and that Stimpson Timber Company appears to allow hiking for the time being.2 Check before you go, since that permission can change.

  1. Pulaski Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/id/pulaski.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Mount Pulaski Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/mount_pulaski/wallace_070.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Pulaski, Mount, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/mount-pulaski/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Pulaski, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/pulaski.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Pulaski, Mount
Pulaski, MountPhoto: 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: 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, 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.