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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Slate Point Lookout

The current Slate Point lookout is the third structure on the site, built in 1979, and remains Forest Service property kept on emergency standby.

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. Listed as drive-up access with emergency standby status; not offered as a public rental.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive-up access per Idaho Fire Lookouts; kept for emergency fire use.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 flattop cab on 41-foot timber towerThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Height
7 ft (2.1 m)
Elevation
7,290 ft (2,222 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.59861, −116.13361
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-slate-point

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 3.3 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 BuiltFirst Slate Point Lookout: 75-foot pole tower with 7x7-foot cab and ground cabin quarters.Source: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1931 and 1948
  3. 1948 Replaced by a new structureNez Perce National Forest replaced the 1931 structure with an L-4 cab on a 41-foot tower.Source: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1948 and 1979
  5. 1979 BuiltCurrent R-6 flattop cab with catwalk on a 41-foot timber tower replaced the 1948 L-4.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1979 and 2009
  7. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with the National Historic Lookout Register on April 24, 2009.Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2016 StaffedKris Anderson staffed Slate Point, documented for seasons 2016-2019 and 2021.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 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.

Slate Point has carried a fire lookout above Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest for nearly a century, though the structure standing today is the third one built on the site.1 The original, raised in 1931, was a 75-foot pole tower with a small 7-by-7-foot cab and a separate ground cabin for living quarters.1 The Nez Perce National Forest replaced it in 1948 with a more standard L-4 cab set on a 41-foot tower.1 That tower gave way in turn to the current lookout, an R-6 flattop cab with a catwalk on a 41-foot timber tower, built in 1979.1,2

The site's name comes from Slate Creek below it, named by early miners who panned the stream looking for gold-bearing gravel and found only slate instead.1

Slate Point has a long staffing history, though detailed year-by-year records are thin. One lookout, Kris Anderson, is documented as having staffed the tower for five seasons, including 2016 through 2019 and 2021, and a visitor comment on the same page notes it was also staffed by a regular Forest Service hire.3 More broadly, the National Historic Lookout Register describes it as having been staffed in most recent years.1

The tower was never abandoned or burned; it remains standing and in Forest Service hands. It was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on April 24, 2009.1 Today it is kept available for fire emergencies and staffing rather than offered as a public vacation rental, with its status listed as drive-up access and emergency standby.2,3 Visitors reaching the site should check current Nez Perce–Clearwater National Forest guidance before approaching, since an active or standby fire lookout may not be open to climb.

  1. Slate Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/slate-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Slate Point Lookout, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/slatepoint.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Slate Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/slate-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Slate Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Slate Point Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Slate Point in 1999
Slate Point in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Slate Point Lookout
Slate Point 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: 1979
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1931

    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, height, 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: 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: 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, 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.