FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Shefoot Mountain Lookout

St. Joe NF site in Shoshone County: tent in 1927, L-4 cab in 1931, destroyed in 1961; no remnants found, rock carvings reported.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1961; no remnants of the lookout were found, though carvings in the rocks 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?
Yes, you can drive up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab atop the west summit (1931), after a 1927 tentThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.30660, −115.68510
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-shefoot-mountain

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 4.4 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. 1927 First staffedJoe Coddington staffed the summit with a tent and a mapboard; the source says he may have staffed it for multiple yearsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab atop the west summitSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1931 and 1961
  4. 1961 DestroyedLookout destroyed; the sources do not say how or by whomSource: firelookout.com
  5. 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.

Shefoot Mountain sits in the St. Joe National Forest, about seven miles northeast of Avery in Shoshone County, Idaho.1,2

Joe Coddington staffed the summit in 1927 with a tent and a mapboard, and the source says he may have staffed it for several years.1

An L-4 cab went up on the west summit in 1931.1,2 The two sources disagree on how far east the patrol point lies. Firelookout.com puts it 1.25 miles east, atop Turkey Point, while Idaho Fire Lookouts puts Turkey Point 1 1/2 miles east.1,2 The lookout was destroyed in 1961.2

Today Idaho Fire Lookouts reports that no remnants of the lookout could be found.1 The only things it lists as left are carvings in the rocks and the view.1 The page describes the spot as one often visited by off-roaders, and it suggests visitors may have carried off or burned whatever was left.1 It also files the site as drive-up, which means a road reaches it.1 Nothing we read says whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Shefoot Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/shefoot-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Shefoot Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/shefootmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Shefoot Mountain Lookout
Shefoot Mountain LookoutPhoto: 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, staffing, 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.