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Fire lookout · Idaho

Simmons Ridge

St. Joe National Forest site at 6,762 ft: a 1924 camp with an L-4 tower built 1933; last staffed 1972; burned by lightning in 1984. No source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Burned by lightning in 1984 per the Idaho page; the page does not say what remains of the tower or its base

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 Hike-In on the Idaho Fire Lookouts page

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Type unknownL-4 tower built 1933; set atop a concrete base in 1953The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho
Coordinates
47.09659, −115.29681
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-simmons-ridge

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 3.9 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 campSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1933 BuiltL-4 towerSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1953
  4. 1953 AlteredL-4 tower set atop a concrete baseSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1967 StaffedTom Boehr, as listed on the page with a Kellogg Evening News citationSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1972 Last staffedLast staffedSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1984 BurnedBurnt down by lightningSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1984 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (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.

The Simmons Ridge site in the St. Joe National Forest is listed at 6,762 feet.1 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page says the place was established as a camp in 1924, and that an L-4 tower went up there in 1933.1

The tower was set atop a concrete base in 1953, and the lookout was last staffed in 1972.1 The page names two former staffers.1 Charlie Kevis is listed for the 1930s, citing a book by Bert Russell, and Tom Boehr is listed for 1967, citing the Kellogg Evening News.1

Lightning burned the tower down in 1984.1

The page lists the site as hike-in.1 It does not say what, if anything, of the tower or its concrete base remains, or whether the public can visit.1 No other source read describes the site now.1

  1. Simmons Ridge, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/simmons-ridge/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Simmons Ridge
Simmons RidgePhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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Sources

  1. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: name, location, status, 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
  2. 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.