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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Sneak Point Lookout

Sneak Point, an L-4 tower on the Clearwater National Forest, had a 1940 camp and was abandoned in 1941; the FFLA lists it as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone. No source we read describes the site today.

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.80395, −115.47140 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-sneak-point

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 4.1 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. 1930 BuiltFirelookout.com lists an L-4 tower in the 1930s, and the Forest Service list gives an L-4 tower of the same period.Sources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1940 EventA camp was set up on the eastern end of a spur that runs from the summit.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1941 AbandonedAbandoned 1941 in firelookout.com, the Forest Service list and Idaho Fire Lookouts.Sources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 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.

Sneak Point Lookout stood in Clearwater County on the Clearwater National Forest, about 6 miles east-southeast of the Canyon Ranger Station, at an elevation of 4,550 feet.1

Firelookout.com lists an L-4 tower there in the 1930s.1 The Forest Service list of Clearwater lookouts also gives an L-4 tower from that period, but spells the name Sneak Peak.2

In 1940 a camp was set up on the eastern end of a spur that runs from the summit.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the same date for the camp.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts says it has not yet recorded any staffing history for the tower.3

The tower was abandoned in 1941, according to firelookout.com, the Forest Service list and Idaho Fire Lookouts.1,2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.4

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site Drive-Up.3 None of the sources we read describes what remains at the site now, or whether it is open to the public, so check access before you go.

  1. Sneak Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/sneakpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Sneak Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/sneak-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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 location by 2.1 km (1.3 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.80395, −115.47140
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 46.80541, −115.49874

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: 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
  4. 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.