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Fire lookout · Valley County, Idaho

Split Creek Point Lookout (now at the Cent. ID Hist. Museum – Cab)

Also known as Split Creek Point Lookout, Cent. ID Hist. Museum – Cab

1933 Aermotor cab from Split Creek Point, Valley County, Idaho. The steel tower came down in 2008; the cab is now at the Central Idaho Historical Museum in McCall.

Original site: Split Creek Point Lookout

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. The cab at the McCall museum may be toured. The original summit is reached on foot by trail.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Two trails, FST-081 and FST-086, reach the summit. The climbing guide puts the distance from the trailhead at just under 5.0 miles.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabAermotor 7x7 observation cab on a 72-foot open steel towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,017 ft (1,529 m)
Agency
Central Idaho Historical Museum (cab); Payette National Forest is a cooperator on the register entry
Land
Unknown
Location
Valley County, Idaho
Coordinates
44.90953, −116.10901
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-split-creek-point-at-cent-id-hist-museum-cab

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 3.7 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. 1933 BuiltLookout and residence cabin constructed, per the registerSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1933 and 2008
  3. 2008 EventChapter report says 'the Split Creek Point cabin' was intentionally damaged by Forest Service personnel; it does not say whether that was the lookout cab or the residence cabinSource: firelookout.org
  4. 2008 RemovedSteel tower dismantled that year, per the register and the 2008 chapter reportSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  5. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 3, 2020Source: nhlr.org
  6. Date unknown MovedMoved from Split Creek Point to the Cent. ID Hist. Museum – Cab.Source: FFLA
  7. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Split Creek Point is in Valley County, Idaho. The National Historic Lookout Register lists the Payette National Forest as a cooperator, and says the lookout and a residence cabin were constructed in 1933. The lookout was an Aermotor 7x7 observation cab set on a 72-foot X-braced steel tower.1

The tower came down in 2008.1,2 A Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter report from that year says the steel tower was dismantled, and that Forest Service staff intentionally damaged a cabin there. The report calls it only "the Split Creek Point cabin," so it does not say whether that was the lookout cab or the residence cabin.2 The register agrees the tower was taken apart that year, and says the residence cabin stayed at the original site.1

The lookout cab itself was moved to the Central Idaho Historical Museum in McCall, Idaho, and visitors can tour it. The register gives no date for the move.1 The site was registered on October 3, 2020.1

A climbing guide published in 2016 says the peak was once home to a 75-foot lookout tower, and that its summit still has a cabin from the 1930s with a working roof.3 The guide's 75 feet and the register's 72 feet do not match. The guide also does not say which cabin it means, so the sources do not settle which cabin remains on the summit.1,3

Reaching the summit takes two trails, FST-081 and FST-086.3 The guide puts the distance from the trailhead at just under five miles.3

  1. Split Creek Point Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/split-creek-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Chapter report, 2008, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-wdep-2008.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Split Creek Point, Idaho: A Climbing Guide, https://idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/split-creek-point (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Split Creek Point Lookout
Split Creek Point LookoutPhoto: Richard Holm, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cab Relocated to the Central Idaho Museum, McCall ID
Cab Relocated to the Central Idaho Museum, McCall IDPhoto: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Residence Cabin Remaining at the Original Site
Residence Cabin Remaining at the Original SitePhoto: Idaho, A Climbing Guide, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: design, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.