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Fire lookout · Valley County, Idaho

Rush Creek Point Lookout

A 1937 CCC-built cab in the Frank Church wilderness, out of service for years and reached only by trail; its design and build date are disputed.

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. Inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Access is by trail only. Used only by wilderness patrols since 1986.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Access is only by trail, inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabR-4 plan 80 cab, 15 x 15 ft with a pyramid roof (register); two other sites call it an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1937
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,139 ft (2,176 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Valley County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.09725, −114.93407
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-rush-creek-point

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 4.0 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. 1937 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Two other sites (firelookout.com, Forest Lookouts) date a 'L-4 cab' to 1935; see notesSources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com, intermountainhistories.org
  2. 1939 FireFire threatened the Rush Creek lookout station; it was saved (Post-Register item of August 18, 1939, as quoted on Forest Lookouts)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1953 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Blaine Cornell as known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1953 and 1975
  5. 1975 StaffedIdaho Fire Lookouts lists Rich Sutliff and Donna Henderson as known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1986 RestoredRehabilitated once; used only by wilderness patrols from 1986Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 2000 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, March 1, 2000Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 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.

Rush Creek Point overlooks the Rush, Cabin and Big Creek drainages in the Payette National Forest.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built the cabin in 1937, according to the register, Idaho Fire Lookouts and Intermountain Histories.2,3,1 The register describes an R-4 design, plan 80, with a 15-by-15-foot cab and a pyramid roof, and calls it similar to an L-4.2,3

Two other pages disagree. The firelookout.com page and a Forest Lookouts page both give a 1935 L-4 cab.4,5 I could not settle that from these sources, so the story follows the register's date and design.

Intermountain Histories ties the lookouts to the Forest Service's 10:00 AM policy, which aimed to have fires out by ten the next morning. The Forest Service kept that policy until 1977.1

A 1939 newspaper item, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, reported a fire that endangered the Rush Creek lookout station, though the station was saved.5

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists a known staffer for 1953 and two for 1975.3 The register says the cabin was rehabilitated once and has been used only by wilderness patrols since 1986.2 The 1980 Central Idaho Wilderness Act placed this part of the Payette forest inside the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. That limited the fire suppression the Forest Service could legally carry out, and Intermountain Histories says it made the lookout less necessary.1

The register added the lookout on March 1, 2000.2,3 Intermountain Histories calls it abandoned and says it has long been inactive.1 The register describes it as in fairly good shape but in need of maintenance, and its photo is from 2009.2 I found no later visit report, so today's condition is unknown. The only way in is by trail, so plan on hiking in, and check with the Krassel Ranger District before you go.2

  1. Everett Masterman, "The Rush Creek Point Fire Lookout and Fire Suppression," Intermountain Histories, University of Idaho, https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/302 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Rush Creek Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/rush-creek-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Rush Creek Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/rush-creek-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Rush Creek Point Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/rushcreekpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Rush Creek Point - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/rush-creek-point.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Rush Creek Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Rush Creek Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2009 photo
2009 photo (2009)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Rush Creek Point in 1961
Rush Creek Point in 1961 (1961)Photo: Liter Spence and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Rush Creek Point in 2009
Rush Creek Point in 2009 (2009)Photo: Liter Spence and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Rush Creek Point Lookout
Rush Creek Point LookoutPhoto: 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: 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: what it is built of, design, 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.