FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Adams County, Idaho

Smith Mountain Lookout

Smith Mountain Lookout traces to a 1908 fire camp and stands today as a 1963 cab on a 10-foot concrete base, staffed intermittently since the 1930s.

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. Drive-up access; current status is emergency use, not a public rental.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Reachable by drive-up road per Idaho Fire Lookouts.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 style, 16x16-foot cab on 10-foot concrete baseThe designs: L-4, R-6, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
16 ft (4.9 m)
Elevation
8,009 ft (2,441 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Payette National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Adams County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.13436, −116.57937
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-smith-mountain-2

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 3.8 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. 1908 EventA fire-watch camp was established on Smith Mountain.Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1920 BuiltA cupola-style cabin was built to house the lookout.Source: firelookout.com
  3. 1932 Replaced by a new structureThe cupola cabin was replaced by an L-4 cab.Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1939 StaffedEmerson Wiggins staffed the lookout.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1942 StaffedClarke Childers staffed the lookout.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1947 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Hubert Fuller staffed the lookout, 1947-1949.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1956 StaffedWiggins staffed the lookout again, per Former Forest Fire Lookout Registry.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1963 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  9. 1963 Replaced by a new structureCurrent lookout built: 16x16-foot cab on a 10-foot concrete base.Sources: firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  10. No record between 1963 and 2020
  11. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register on September 29, 2020.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  12. 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.

Smith Mountain, on the Payette National Forest, has carried fire detection since the early days of the Forest Service. A fire-watch camp was established on the mountain in 1908, and in 1920 a cupola-style cabin was built to house it.1 That early cabin was replaced in 1932 with a standard L-4 cab, and then replaced again in 1963 by the lookout that still stands today: a 16-by-16-foot cab set on a 10-foot concrete base.1,2

Known staff at Smith Mountain stretch back to the 1930s. Emerson Wiggins staffed it in 1939 and is recorded again, as simply "Wiggins," in 1956. Clarke Childers staffed the tower in 1942, and Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Fuller staffed it from 1947 to 1949.1,3 These names come from the Fire Lookout Museum and the Central Idaho Historical Museum, which hold photographs of the lookout and its personnel.1

The lookout was never abandoned or lost to fire; it has remained in continuous Forest Service ownership through its several rebuilds. It was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on September 29, 2020.2

Today Smith Mountain Lookout is reachable by a drive-up road and its current status is listed as available for emergency use rather than as a nightly rental.3 As with other standby lookouts on the Payette National Forest, visitors should confirm current access rules with the Forest Service before planning a trip, since emergency-standby status can mean the structure is off-limits to the public outside of fire season staffing.

  1. Smith Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/smithmtn309.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Smith Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/smith-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Smith Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/west-central/smith-mountain-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Smith Mountain Lookout - 2013
Smith Mountain Lookout - 2013 (2013)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Smith Mountain Lookout - 1929
Smith Mountain Lookout - 1929 (1929)Photo: US Forest Service, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Smith Mountain Lookout
Photo: Central Idaho Historical Museum, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Smith Mtn. in 1929
Smith Mtn. in 1929 (1929)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and the Central Idaho Historical Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Smith Mtn. 1932-1963
Smith Mtn. 1932-1963 (1932)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and the Central Idaho Historical Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Smith Mtn. in 2001
Smith Mtn. in 2001 (2001)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and the Central Idaho Historical Museum, via firelookout.com · source
Smith Mountain Lookout
Smith 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.

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: 1963
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1920

    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, 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: what it is built of, 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) 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.