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Fire lookout · Idaho

Smith Triangle Lookout

Kaniksu National Forest hike-in lookout near Porthill, Idaho; sources disagree on a 1934 tower vs a 1937 cabin; destroyed in the 1950s, now listed as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks it as gone, type Ground; no source describes remains on 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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Listed as a hike-in site on idahofirelookouts.com; no trail described

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Type unknownSources disagree: firelookout.com gives a 20-foot L-4 tower dated 1934; idahofirelookouts.com lists a small cabin in 1937The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho
Coordinates
48.95976, −116.54380
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-smith-triangle

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 4.2 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. 1934 Builtfirelookout.com: 20-foot L-4 tower; idahofirelookouts.com gives a different first structure (see 1937)Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1934 First staffedHoward Green, listed as lookout in 1934; earliest documented staffingSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1935 StaffedEd Johnson, listed for 1935 and 1936Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  4. 1937 Builtidahofirelookouts.com: small cabin; conflicts with the 1934 tower date on firelookout.comSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1950 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  6. Date unknown DestroyedDestroyed in the 1950s; sources give only the decade, no single yearSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  7. 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.

Smith Triangle Lookout stood on the Kaniksu National Forest, about seven miles southwest of Porthill in Boundary County, Idaho, at an elevation of 5,922 feet.1,2

The sources disagree about what the first structure was.1,2 One page describes a 20-foot L-4 tower dated 1934.2 The other lists a small cabin in 1937.1 The 1934 date fits the staff list, which names a lookout there that year.1,2

Howard Green is credited with the lookout in 1934, and Ed Johnson for 1935 and 1936.1,2

Both pages say the lookout was destroyed in the 1950s.1,2

Today the Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the site as gone, with its type recorded as ground.3 No source describes what, if anything, is left at the site, or whether the spot is open to visitors. The Idaho Fire Lookouts listing files it as a hike-in site.1

  1. Smith Triangle Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/smith-triangle-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Smith Triangle Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/smithtriangle.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

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