FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Shearer Peak Lookout

Crow's nest built 1931, L-4 cab on a 53-foot tower by 1953, destroyed 1973; no source describes what remains today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1973, per two lookout-history sites.

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
Listed as a hike-in site. No source describes what remains there today.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 53-foot treated timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.03922, −114.89482
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-shearer-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.1 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. 1931 BuiltCrow's nestSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1950
  3. 1950 StaffedJack Harbaugh returned after three months at the lookout (Ravalli Republican, 28 Aug 1950)Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1953 BuiltL-4 cab on a 53-foot treated timber towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1956 StaffedLeonard Weisbeck listed as known staffSource: firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1956 and 1971
  7. 1971 StaffedRoy Abbott listed as known staff for 1971-1972Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1973 DestroyedDestroyedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 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.

Shearer Peak rises to 6,226 feet in the Nez Perce National Forest.1,2 A crow's nest was built on it in 1931.1,2 By 1953 the site held an L-4 cab on a 53-foot tower of treated timber.1,2 One history page also notes a patrol point about a mile to the northeast.1

On August 28, 1950, the Ravalli Republican reported that Jack Harbaugh had returned after three months at the lookout.3 Leonard Weisbeck is listed among the known staff for 1956.1 Roy Abbott is listed for 1971 and 1972, and that listing credits a source titled Faces of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness.2

Both history sites date the tower's destruction to 1973.1,2

No source I found describes what, if anything, remains at the site today. One history page lists it as a hike-in site.2

  1. Shearer Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/shearerpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Shearer Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/shearer-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shearer Peak, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/shearer-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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, 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, height, 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.