FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Shissler Peak Lookout

Shissler Peak's 1953 L-4 cab in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness replaced a 1933 tower and remains a staffed, hike-in lookout.

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. Hike-in only, within the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; staffed in fire season, not a public rental.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Reached on foot through wilderness terrain.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of 2026)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,375 ft (1,638 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.16556, −114.93972
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-shissler-peak

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 4.2 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. 1933 BuiltFirst lookout: an L-4 cab on a pole tower.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1953
  3. 1953 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  4. 1953 Replaced by a new structureCurrent 1936-model L-4 cab with catwalk built on a 10-foot treated timber tower.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1956 StaffedGary Hannon staffed the lookout.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1967 StaffedPenny Kummrow staffed the lookout.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. No record between 1967 and 2009
  8. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register, April 24, 2009.Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2010 StaffedLaura Grace Simon staffed the lookout.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Shissler Peak overlooks the point where Moose Creek meets the Selway River, within the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness on the Nez Perce National Forest.1 The Forest Service built the first lookout there in 1933, a pole tower carrying an L-4 cab.1,2 Twenty years later, in 1953, that structure was replaced with the lookout still in use today: an L-4 cab of the 1936 design, fitted with a catwalk and set on a shorter, 10-foot treated timber tower.1,2

Because it sits deep in wilderness, Shissler Peak has always been a hike-in post rather than a drive-up one.2 It has been kept staffed through fire seasons for decades.1 The known staffing record includes Gary Hannon in 1956 and Penny Kummrow in 1967, though Idaho Fire Lookouts notes the full staffing history is incomplete and welcomes more names.2,3

The lookout was added to the National Historic Lookout Register in 2009.4 It remains in Forest Service hands and continues to be staffed in the fire season rather than offered as a public rental, so a visit means reaching it on foot through wilderness terrain and respecting that it may be occupied by an active lookout.

  1. Shissler Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/shissler-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Shissler Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/shissler-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Shissler Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/shissler.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. Shissler Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/shissler-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Shissler Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Shissler Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Shissler Peak L.O.
Shissler Peak L.OPhoto: Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Shissler Peak Lookout
Shissler Peak 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1953
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1933

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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: design, 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: staffing, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.