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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Red Horse Lookout

Coeur d'Alene NF summit cab first recorded 1931; destroyed about 1952; a 1956 USGS note says the tower was removed. Drive-up; only remains noted are firepit metal.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab destroyed about 1952 per the sources; no standing structure described

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. Summit reached by forest roads with a short final walk; WillhiteWeb rates the access easy; no closure described

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive up, or a half-mile walk on road; most people park and walk the last stretch

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.54957, −116.63315
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-red-horse

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. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab on the summit; all four sources give 1931Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1940 StaffedDecade only: Idaho Fire Lookouts lists Beb Lemons as staff in the 1940s, with 'Letter to Ray' in parenthesesSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1945 RebuiltSecond L-4 cab listed by three sites; WillhiteWeb says only that another cab may have been builtSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  4. 1952 DestroyedCab destroyed; the Kootenai County list dates it c.1952Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, willhiteweb.com
  5. 1956 RemovedUSGS party reported the lookout tower removed, as recorded by WillhiteWebSource: willhiteweb.com
  6. 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.

Red Horse Mountain, about 11 miles southeast of Coeur d'Alene in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, is first recorded with an L-4 cab on its summit in 1931.1,2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts site lists Beb Lemons as staff in the 1940s, with "Letter to Ray" in parentheses after the name.3 Three sites list a second L-4 cab in 1945, but WillhiteWeb says only that another cab may have been built that year.1,3,2,4 The cab was destroyed in 1952, although the Kootenai County list dates that to c.1952.1,3,2,4 WillhiteWeb also reports that a 1956 USGS party said the lookout tower had been removed, so the sources disagree on whether a tower or only a cab stood here.1,2

The Idaho Fire Lookouts site lists the summit as drive-up.3 WillhiteWeb describes a forest-road route ending in an unmarked spur for the last half mile, and notes that most visitors leave the car and walk that stretch.2 It rates the access as easy, mentions some views from the summit, and notes that the north views are growing over with trees.2 A photo caption notes some metal from the lookout in the firepit.2 Apart from that, no source we read describes what remains on the summit now.2

  1. Red Horse Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/redhorse.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Red Horse Mountain Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/idaho_lookouts/red_horse_mountain/map_014.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Red Horse Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/red-horse-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Kootenai County - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/kootenai-county.html (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: 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
  4. 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.