FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Sandpoint Baldy

Kaniksu lookout near Sandpoint: camp 1921, cupola cabin 1922, lookouts named in 1927-1931 papers; cabin since removed, date unknown.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cabin since removed; removal date not given

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabCupola cabin (built 1922) after a 1921 campThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1922
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.33154, −116.69417
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-sandpoint-baldy

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 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. 1921 EventCamp establishedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1922 BuiltCupola cabin builtSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1927 First staffedClarence Sperling named as the lookout in a Pend Oreille Review report of a lightning storm; earliest named lookout in the sources readSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1929 StaffedCharles Stidwell reported leaving for the station for the summer (June 1929, two papers)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1931 StaffedCharles Stidwell reported as having been stationed on Mt. Baldy (August 1931)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Sandpoint Baldy is in Bonner County, Idaho, about seven miles northwest of Sandpoint, on the Kaniksu National Forest.1 A camp went up there in 1921, and a cupola cabin followed in 1922.1,2,3

Newspaper items gathered on Forest Lookouts name two lookouts. A September 1927 report of a lightning storm, from the Pend Oreille Review, names Clarence Sperling and says one strike landed no more than 35 feet from the lookout house.3 In June 1929 two papers reported that Charles Stidwell was heading to the station for the summer, and an August 1931 paper said he had been stationed there.3 The notices call the place "Bald mountain" or "Mt. Baldy," and Forest Lookouts files them under this lookout.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts says the cabin has since been removed.2 Firelookout.com lists the lookout's dates as "R.I.P. 1922-?", so the removal date is unknown.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as gone.4

No source I read describes what, if anything, remains at the site now, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Sandpoint Baldy Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/sandpointbaldy.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Sandpoint Baldy, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/sandpoint-baldy/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Sandpoint Baldy, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/sandpoint-baldy.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Sandpoint Baldy
Sandpoint BaldyPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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: 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, status, agency, 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.