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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Roundtop (Selway)

Also known as Roundtop, Round Top Mtn Lookout

Nez Perce NF L-4 cab in Idaho County, dated 1933 and abandoned by 1940. Both sites list it as gone or abandoned; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in 1940 and listed as gone. No source describes what remains.

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cab, listed as a fire lookout cabinThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.12880, −115.38187
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-roundtop-selway

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 3.7 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. 1933 BuiltDated 1933 by firelookout.com; Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1933 +/- (approximate)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1940 AbandonedBoth sites date abandonment to 1940Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 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.

Round Top Mountain, in the Nez Perce National Forest, had an L-4 cab. The firelookout.com listing calls it a fire lookout cabin.1,2 The site is 28 miles east of Kooskia, in Idaho County, at 6,807 feet.1

The records give 1933 for the cab. Idaho Fire Lookouts marks that year as approximate.1,2

Both sites say the lookout was abandoned in 1940.1,2 The firelookout.com listing marks it as gone.1

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as hike-in, meaning visitors walk in rather than drive up.2 No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today.

A separate Round Top Lookout, on the Clearwater National Forest, is a different site. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it at 6,560 feet and marks it destroyed in 1972.3

  1. Round Top Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/roundtop294a.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Round Top Mtn Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/round-top-mtn-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Round Top Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/round-top-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Round Top Lookout
Round 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: 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. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: 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
  5. 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.