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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Simmons Peak

Simmons Peak lookout camp (1924) and L-4 tower (1933), St. Joe NF; last staffed 1972, burned by lightning in 1984; site reached by a forest road.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned down from lightning in 1984; no source describes what remains at the site

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
Trail
Route guide describes a 3-mile forest road (FS 346) off Red Ives Creek Road that climbs to the former lookout; no source says whether visitors may go there

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab atop a concrete base (1953), per firelookout.com; Idaho Fire Lookouts says L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.08423, −115.27493
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-simmons-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 4.0 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. 1924 EventEstablished as a campSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1933 BuiltL-4 tower builtSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1953
  4. 1953 AlteredL-4 cab set atop a concrete baseSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1967 StaffedTom Boehr, citing the Kellogg Evening NewsSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1972 Last staffedLast staffedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1984 BurnedBurned down from lightningSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 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.

Simmons Peak sits in Shoshone County, Idaho, about four miles northeast of Red Ives R.S., at 6,762 feet.1,2 The site began as a camp in 1924, and an L-4 tower went up in 1933.1,2 In 1953 an L-4 structure was set atop a concrete base.1,2 The sources disagree on the 1953 structure: firelookout.com calls it an L-4 cab, Idaho Fire Lookouts an L-4 tower, and the statewide list a two-story cab.1,2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts names Charlie Kevis for the 1930s, citing Hardship & Happy Times by Bert Russell, and Tom Boehr for 1967, citing the Kellogg Evening News.2 Staffing ended in 1972.1,2

Lightning burned the lookout down in 1984, and it is gone.1,2,3

A route guide describes Simmons Ridge Road, FS 346, a 3-mile spur off Red Ives Creek Road that climbs to the site of the former lookout.4 The guide places that road in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, while firelookout.com names the St. Joe National Forest for the lookout; no source explains the difference.1,4 No source describes what remains on the site, such as the concrete base, and none says whether visitors may go there.1,2,4

  1. Simmons Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/id/simmons.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Simmons Ridge, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater/simmons-peak/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho fire lookout list, FFLA (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Simmons Ridge scout route, Trails Offroad, https://www.trailsoffroad.com/US/idaho/scout-routes/5762-simmons-ridge (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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.