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Fire lookout · Kootenai County, Idaho

Spades Mountain Lookout

Also known as Spades

Kootenai County tower: camp lookout from 1923, present 67-ft R-6 tower from 1963, last staffed in the 1970s, removed in July 2015. Ground house remains per NHLR.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. National forest land; no closure or access rule found in the sources. Sources describe the tower as easy to reach before it was removed. Nothing is described about the site since 2022.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
The tower is gone. Only the ground house is said to remain.

Facts

Status
Gone sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower67-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab (present tower from 1963); an earlier 50-foot pole tower (1926) and a 54-foot steel tower (1941)The designs: R-6, L-4, Aermotor
Built of
Wood
Built
1923
Height
67 ft (20.4 m)
Elevation
5,038 ft (1,536 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests (Coeur d'Alene River Ranger District, Fernan Office)
Land
Federal land
Location
Kootenai County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.79589, −116.56851
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-spades-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 4.2 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. 1923 BuiltBegan as a camp lookoutSource: nhlr.org
  2. 1926 Built50-foot pole tower with a 7 by 7 foot cabSources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 AlteredLog cabin added for living quartersSource: nhlr.org
  4. 1941 Built54-foot steel tower (NHLR). The Forest Lookouts list gives a 46-foot Aermotor MC-40 tower for the same yearSources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1945 StaffedTwo 19-year-old women, Mabel Rose and Marjorie Olson, recorded as the staff in a newspaper item quoted on the Forest Lookouts pageSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1945 and 1963
  7. 1963 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  8. 1963 MovedSteel tower moved to Long MountainSources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1963 Replaced by a new structurePresent 67-foot treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab. The Forest Lookouts list gives 1952 for this towerSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 1972 Last staffedLatest named staff on the firelookout.com list (Terrence Meersman). NHLR says not staffed since the 1970sSources: firelookout.com, nhlr.org
  11. No record between 1972 and 2008
  12. 2008 EventDecision reached that the heavily vandalized lookout is to be removed.Source: firelookout.org
  13. 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 9, 2011 per NHLR. FFLOS gives July 9, 2011 for the listingSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  14. 2014 EventPlanned removal was postponed late in the year, to be acted on in spring 2015.Source: firelookout.org
  15. 2015 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  16. 2015 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered August 30, 2015 per FFLOSSource: firetower.org
  17. 2015 RemovedTower removed in July 2015 under a demolition contract; the Forest Fire Lookout Association was not told in advance and no materials were salvagedSources: nhlr.org, firetower.org, firelookout.com
  18. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Spades Mountain, in Kootenai County, Idaho, began as a camp lookout in 1923.1,2 A 50-foot pole tower with a 7-by-7-foot cab went up in 1926, and a log cabin for living quarters was added in 1928.1 A 54-foot steel tower was built in 1941.1 In 1963 that tower was moved to Long Mountain, and a 67-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cab took its place.1,3 Another local list dates the 67-foot tower to 1952 and calls the 1941 tower an Aermotor.2

The staff list on the Fire Lookout Tower page runs from 1946 to 1972, and many of the names are couples.4 In October 1945, a newspaper item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page described two 19-year-old women, Mabel Rose and Marjorie Olson, as the staff.2 The Register says the tower has not been staffed since the 1970s.1

Its easy access and closeness to Coeur d'Alene made it a popular hangout, and it was frequently vandalized.5 The tower was removed in July 2015.1,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association said the lookout was taken down under a demolition contract, that the group was not told in advance, and that no materials were salvaged.6

The Register says the ground house remains.1 A January 2022 article said a local photographer had helped lead the charge to save the tower and possibly rebuild one on the site for the rental program, but that no further progress had been made.5 Because the tower is gone, check with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests before going to the site.1

  1. Spades Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/spades-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Spades Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/spades-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Spades Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/spades-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Spades Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Forest Fire Lookout Association), https://www.firelookout.com/id/spades.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Spades Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/spades-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. North Idaho/Montana chapter report, 2015, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nidmt-2015.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Spades Mountain Lookout
Photo: Gary Weber, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Spades Mountain Lookout
Photo: Gary Weber, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Spades Mountain Lookout
Spades Mountain LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.

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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: dates, 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
  6. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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