FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho

Solomon Mountain Lookout

Gone Kaniksu NF lookout: 75-foot L-6 tower and cabin, built 1935, destroyed 1958 per two sources; no source describes the site today beyond a drive-up label.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1958 per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts says removed, with no date

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
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site drive-up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower75-foot pole L-6 tower with a cabinThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
75 ft (22.9 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Boundary County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.79041, −116.10877
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-solomon-mountain

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 its recorded height.

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. 1935 Built75-foot pole L-6 tower and cabinSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 First staffedMr. and Mrs. Edward Glen, the first named lookout workersSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1938 StaffedJonas ParshallSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1944 StaffedLoretta Bell; Idaho Fire Lookouts cites a Bonners Ferry Herald item dated 06/08/1944Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1946 StaffedHarry WonenburgSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 1947 StaffedHarry HofstetterSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1949 StaffedGeorge BrabbSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 1951 Last staffedMr. and Mrs. Tom Coble, listed for 1950-1951Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  9. 1958 DestroyedDestroyed per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Lookouts says removed, no dateSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  10. 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.

Solomon Mountain is in Boundary County, Idaho, on the Kaniksu National Forest, about 11 miles northeast of Bonners Ferry.1,2,3

The lookout was a 75-foot pole L-6 tower with a cabin, built in 1935.1,4,2

The lookout list names workers on the tower from 1935 to 1951.1 Edward Glen and his wife were the first name on it, followed by Jonas Parshall in 1938 and Loretta Bell in 1944.1,4,5 Harry Wonenburg (1946), Harry Hofstetter (1947) and George Brabb (1949) came next, and Tom Coble and his wife were the last named, in 1950 and 1951.1,4

Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts both say the tower was destroyed in 1958.1,4 Forest Lookouts instead says it was removed, and gives no date.2 The sources disagree on this point.

Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site drive-up.4 No source we read describes what remains at the site today, or whether the road to it is open to visitors. Check with the Kaniksu National Forest before you drive out.

  1. Solomon Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/solomonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Solomon Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/solomon-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Solomon Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/solomon-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Solomon Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/north-idaho-panhandle-region/solomon-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, agency, ownership, 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.