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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Red Top Lookout

Kaniksu National Forest lookout in Boundary County, Idaho: 50-foot pole tower built 1938, abandoned 1963 or 1964; no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as tower gone. No source we read 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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower50-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1938
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.89742, −116.72718
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-red-top

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 4.3 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. 1932 First staffedLloyd Hydorn, 1932-1933, on the firelookout.com staff list; earlier than the 1938 build date both sites giveSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1938 Built50-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1938 and 1957
  4. 1957 StaffedEd Long, credited with 1957/58 by Idaho Fire LookoutsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1963 AbandonedIdaho Fire Lookouts gives 1963; firelookout.com gives 1964, when the new lookout on Shorty Peak was completedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1963 Last staffedFred Brackebusch, the last name on the firelookout.com listSource: firelookout.com
  7. 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 Top was a lookout in the Kaniksu National Forest, about 12 miles southwest of Porthill in Boundary County, Idaho.1 Its tower was a 50-foot pole structure with an L-4 cab, and both site histories date its construction to 1938.1,2

The known staff list runs from Lloyd Hydorn in 1932 and 1933 to Fred Brackebusch in 1963. Names in between include Alvin Flory (1936) and Loren Pitt (1958 and 1959).1 Idaho Fire Lookouts credits Ed Long with staffing it in 1957/58.2 The list's first two names, from 1932 and 1936, come before the 1938 build date, so the sources do not fully agree on the timeline.1,2

The sources disagree on when the tower was abandoned. Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1963.2 The firelookout.com page dates the end to 1964, the year work finished on a replacement lookout on Shorty Peak.1 Today the Shorty Peak lookout is a rentable cabin run by the Forest Service.3

The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists Red Top as a tower that is gone.4 Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in.2 No source we read describes what remains at the site today, or whether the public may go there.1

  1. Red Top Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, http://www.firelookout.com/id/redtop.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Red Top Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/red-top-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shorty Peak Lookout, USDA Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/idahopanhandle/recreation/shorty-peak-lookout (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Red Top Lookout
Red Top 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.