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Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Roman Nose Lookout

Also known as Roman Nose Peak

Kaniksu NF lookout on Roman Nose Peak, Boundary County, ID; built from 1917, tower blown over in 1999; a 2026 trip report shows its ruins.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Blown over in a windstorm on October 31, 1999; a July 2026 trip report says its ruins can be seen in one photo

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure to climb or rent.

Access

Open to the public. On Kaniksu National Forest land; no closure or permit found in the sources read; the 2026 trip report describes climbing from the lakes

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Summit now more often climbed from the Roman Nose Lakes to the north, per the 2026 trip report

Facts

Status
Ruins
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab (1930s); 29-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cab from 1955, later a flat-roof cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1917
Height
29 ft (8.8 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.62826, −116.59363
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-roman-nose

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1917 BuiltCamp lookout developed on the mountainSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1923 BuiltD-6 cupola cabinSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1930 Built30-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; the sources date it only to the 1930sSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1932 First staffedEarliest named lookout person in the sources: Pat Callahan, 1932 and 1933Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1932 and 1947
  6. 1947 EventIce damage from the previous winter; a second trip was neededSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1955 Replaced by a new structure29-foot treated timber tower with L-4 cab arrivedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1967 BurnedSundance fire destroyed the tower, per September 1967 newspaper accounts quoted by Forest Lookouts; the Forest Lookouts and Idaho Fire Lookouts staff lists continue after 1967Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1970 AlteredCab modified to a flat roof; the sources date this only to the 1970sSource: firelookout.com
  10. 1978 Last staffedLatest named lookout is Brian Hamen for 1978; firelookout.com says last staffed in the late 1970sSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  11. No record between 1978 and 1999
  12. 1999 DestroyedBlown over in a windstorm on October 31, 1999Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  13. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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.

Roman Nose Lookout stood on a peak about 12 miles west-southwest of Bonners Ferry, in Boundary County, Idaho.1 A 2026 trip report places the peak in the Selkirk Mountains.2 It was a Kaniksu National Forest lookout.1,3

The mountain was developed in 1917 with a camp lookout, and it received a D-6 cupola cabin in 1923.1 In the 1930s a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab was built.1

The earliest person the sources name as a lookout is Pat Callahan, listed for 1932 and 1933.3 In 1947 a Sandpoint paper reported that the previous winter's ice load had badly damaged the tower, so a second pack trip was needed.4

A 29-foot treated timber tower with an L-4 cab arrived in 1955, and the cab was later given a flat roof.1

Newspaper accounts from September 1967 say the Sundance fire destroyed the lookout tower on the peak.4 The lookout, Randy Langston, got out of the tower just before it burned, sheltered among rocks, and was flown out by helicopter.4

Other records keep the tower in use into the late 1970s.1,3 The sources do not reconcile those records with the 1967 accounts.1,3,4

A windstorm blew the tower over on October 31, 1999.1,3

A July 2026 trip report includes a photo in which the lookout's ruins are visible.2 The same report says the peak is now more often climbed from the lakes to the north than by the old lookout road along the south ridge.2 We found no source that says whether the site is closed, and none describes the ruins beyond that photo caption. Before going, check with the Forest Service, which manages this land.1

  1. Roman Nose Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/romannose.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Roman Nose, sonnybou.ca, http://sonnybou.ca/ssbou2026/romannose.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Roman Nose Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/roman-nose-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Roman Nose Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/roman-nose-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Roman Nose Lookout
Roman Nose 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: 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: 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, staffing, 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

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