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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Scotchman Peak Lookout

Kaniksu lookout on 7,009-foot Scotchman Peak from 1922; D-6 cupola cabin c.1926; two sources give abandonment in the 1950s; a magazine article says a few boards and rock remain.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in the 1950s according to two sources; firelookout.com's header says the 1970s. A magazine article says scraps of wood, hardware and part of the lower rock work remain.

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
Trail
About three miles of trail with nearly 3,700 feet of elevation gain, according to a magazine article about the climb. The same article says the Forest Service closed the trail in September 2015 and it reopened in 2016.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabD-6 cupola cabinThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.18906, −116.08132
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-scotchman-peak

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 4.2 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. 1922 EventEstablished by the Forest Service; the magazine calls the first setup a 'rag camp', a pup tent near a treeSource: idahomagazine.com
  2. 1924 StaffedDr. Broady, a doctor from SandpointSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1926 BuiltCupola cabin, D-6 designSources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com, idahomagazine.com
  4. No record between 1926 and 1950
  5. 1950 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  6. 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.

Scotchman Peak, the highest point in Bonner County at 7,009 feet, got a Forest Service lookout in 1922.1 The magazine calls that first setup a "rag camp," essentially a small tent beside a tree that a watcher climbed to look for smoke.1 The next structure, a cupola cabin, came four years later; the Forest Lookouts history dates it to about 1926 and gives it as a D-6 design.2,1 A photo caption on the Idaho Fire Lookouts page says Dr. Broady, a doctor from Sandpoint, was stationed there in 1924.3

A magazine article about mountain goats reports that two lookout staffers died from lightning strikes on the peak before the lookout was abandoned in the 1950s.1 The article gives no publication date in the text I read.

Two sources give the 1950s for abandonment.2,1 The firelookout.com header, "R.I.P. 1926-1970's," puts the end in the 1970s, so the sources disagree.4

Very little is left.1 According to the magazine, what survives is scraps of wood, hardware and part of the lower rock work.1 The route is about three miles long and gains nearly 3,700 feet.1 A photo caption places the goats in the Scotchman Peak Wilderness.1 The article also says the Forest Service closed the trail in September 2015 after several people were hurt in encounters with goats, and that it reopened in 2016.1 I found no source giving current access rules.

  1. You Are Not a Salt Lick, Idaho Magazine, https://idahomagazine.com/?p=11996 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Scotchman Peak, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/scotchman-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Scotchman Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/scotchman-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Scotchman Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/scotchman.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Scotchman Peak Lookout
Scotchman Peak 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: dates, 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: what it is built of, design, 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, 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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