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Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Ruffneck Peak Lookout

A 1932 L-4 cab on Ruffneck Peak near the Frank Church wilderness, now listed for emergency use; sources disagree on staffing.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Listed as available for emergencies only. In or next to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, and reached on foot.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in site in or near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. No route or distance checked.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab, a hip-roofed groundhouse with a catwalkThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,291 ft (2,832 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.48193, −115.15528
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-ruffneck-peak

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.5 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 BuiltL-4 cab builtSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1984
  3. 1984 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Manuel Razo (cited to the Idaho Statesman) and Carmen McRae for 1984Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1985 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Carmen McRae for 1985Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1985 and 2001
  6. 2001 RestoredReturned to active service. firelookout.com says it was staffed again in 2001Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  7. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, February 12, 2004Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 2012 FireLookout evacuated July 30, 2012 while the Halstead fire raised concern for staff safetySource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Ruffneck Peak carries a 1932 L-4 cab in the Challis National Forest.1,2,3 The register calls it the most western lookout on that forest, a hip-roofed groundhouse with a catwalk.1 Keeping Watch describes the L-4 as a 14x14 cabin design, and says these were the first prefabricated live-in lookouts, built until 1952.4 Sources place the peak in or next to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.3,4

Sources differ on how long the cab stayed staffed. The register says staffing ended in the 1980s, and that the cab went back into use in 2001.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts also gives the 1980s as the end of staffing, yet lists staff for 1984 and 1985, and one 1984 name is cited to an Idaho Statesman item. Its own dates do not line up cleanly.2 The firelookout.com page says it was staffed into the 1990s and again in 2001.3

An August 1938 newspaper item, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, reported snow flurries at lookout stations above 9,000 feet, and a temperature of only 27 degrees above zero at this one.5 On July 30, 2012, the lookout was evacuated while the Halstead fire raised concern for the safety of its staff.5 The register added the lookout on February 12, 2004.1,2

Today the sources disagree. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it under emergency status, in a July 2025 post, and says it is a hike-in site.2 The firelookout.com page says the cab can currently be used in emergencies.3 Keeping Watch and Wikipedia both say it is staffed seasonally.4,6 I could not tell from these pages which is current, so check with the Challis National Forest before you plan a visit. The cab is reached on foot.2

  1. Ruffneck Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/ruffneck-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Ruffneck Peak, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/ruffneck-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Ruffneck Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/ruffneck.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Ruffneck Peak, Keeping Watch, University of Idaho, https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/items/roughneck-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Ruffneck Peak - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/ruffneck-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Ruffneck Peak, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffneck_Peak (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Ruffneck Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Ruffneck Peak L.O.
Ruffneck Peak L.OPhoto: Jim Reid, Constantinos Bouras, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Ruffneck Peak in 2001
Ruffneck Peak in 2001 (2001)Photo: Jim Reid, Constantinos Bouras, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Ruffneck Peak in 2016
Ruffneck Peak in 2016 (2016)Photo: Jim Reid, Constantinos Bouras, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Ruffneck Peak
Ruffneck PeakPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, photos, 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
  4. 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
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.