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Fire lookout · Idaho

Rock Rabbit Point

Payette NF, Idaho County: 1929 tree platform and log cabin; 46 ft steel tower built 1934 or 1937, removed 1977 or 1981; cabin and platform reported still there.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The steel tower is gone. The register and firelookout.com say the tree platform and log cabin remain; Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the lookout destroyed.

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
Hike-in site inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Type unknown1929 tree platform and log cabin; 46-foot Aermotor steel tower with 7 x 7 foot cab (register)The design: Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1929
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Payette National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho
Coordinates
45.50046, −115.38457
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-rock-rabbit-point

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 3.6 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. 1929 BuiltTent camp and tree platform; the Forest Lookouts entry gives 1929 for the platform, firelookout.com ties the platform and log cabin to 1929, and Idaho Fire Lookouts dates a log cabin to 1929Sources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1934 Built46-foot steel tower erected; the Forest Lookouts entry, Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com give 1934; the register gives 1937Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1937 BuiltRegister dates the log cabin and 46-foot steel tower to 1937; conflicts with 1934Source: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1937 and 1977
  5. 1977 DestroyedSteel tower; Idaho Fire Lookouts says destroyed in 1977, firelookout.com says gone in 1977Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1981 RemovedRegister says the tower was removed in 1981; conflicts with 1977Source: nhlr.org
  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.

Rock Rabbit Point is a lookout site on Rock Rabbit Mountain in Idaho County, inside the Payette National Forest.1,2 The earliest setup on the mountain was a tent camp and a tree platform, which the register dates to 1929.2

Sources disagree on when the steel tower went up. The register dates a log cabin and a 46-foot Aermotor steel tower to 1937.2 Three other pages give 1934 for the tower.3,4,1 Two of them, Idaho Fire Lookouts and firelookout.com, also date a log cabin at the site to 1929.4,1

They also differ on how it ended. Idaho Fire Lookouts says the tower was destroyed in 1977, and firelookout.com says it was gone in 1977.4,1 The register says it was removed in 1981, and the Forest Lookouts entry gives no date for its removal.2,3

Today, the register says the tree platform and the other structures are still on site, and firelookout.com says the log cabin and tree platform are still in place.2,1 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the lookout destroyed.4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the type as ground and the status as standing.5 None of these descriptions carries a date, so we cannot say which is current.

The site lies inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, and Idaho Fire Lookouts describes its access as hike-in.2,4 Anyone planning a visit should check the current condition and access rules with the Payette National Forest first.

  1. Rock Rabbit Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/rockrabbit.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Rock Rabbit Fire Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/rock-rabbit-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Rock Rabbit Point, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/rock-rabbit-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Rock Rabbit Point, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/rock-rabbit-point/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Rock Rabbit Point
Rock Rabbit PointPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: name, location, status, 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
  2. 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.