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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Square Mountain Lookout

Square Mountain is a rare 1931 Nez Perce L-5 log cabin lookout, abandoned in the early 1970s and under restoration since 1999.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Under restoration; drive-up route exists but not open to the public to enter or climb.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Drive-up access; status listed as under restoration.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabNez Perce L-5 log cabinThe design: L-5
Built of
Logs
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,957 ft (2,425 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.59861, −115.86361
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-square-mountain

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 3.5 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. 1931 BuiltBuilt as a Nez Perce L-5 log cabin lookout.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1931 and 1972
  3. 1972 AbandonedLookout taken out of service in the early 1970s.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 1972 Last staffedDavid Emmons recorded as staffing the lookout in 1972.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1972 and 1999
  6. 1999 RestoredRestoration work began.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 2003 RestoredRestoration project was nearly completed during the year, with the chapter as a project partner.Source: firelookout.org
  8. 2004 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterAdded to the National Historic Lookout Register on February 12, 2004.Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2006 EventComponents needed to finish restoring the period lightning-protection system were finally obtained, salvaged from the Peck Mountain ground cabin.Source: firelookout.org
  10. 2009 RestoredProject to replace the period lightning protection system was completed.Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  11. 2017 RestoredRepainted by a volunteer.Source: firelookout.org
  12. 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Square Mountain Lookout is a rare survivor of a design the Forest Service used only a handful of times: the Nez Perce L-5 log cabin. It was built in 1931 on the Nez Perce National Forest and is considered one of the best of the few such cabins remaining on that forest.1,2

The lookout stayed in service for about four decades before the Forest Service stopped staffing it. Sources agree it was abandoned in the early 1970s, after being in service since 1931.1,2 One staffing record survives from this period: David Emmons is listed as having staffed the lookout in 1972, right around the time it was taken out of service.3

The cabin sat vacant for roughly three decades before restoration work began. Both the National Historic Lookout Register and Idaho Fire Lookouts date the start of that work to 1999.1,3 The project has been carried out by the regional Forest Service Historic Preservation Team together with a Passport in Time volunteer program, and has included installing lightning protection materials supplied by the Idaho/Montana chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association.1 Square Mountain was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on February 12, 2004.1

Restoration has continued into recent years, and as of the most recent listings the lookout's status is given as "under restoration" rather than fully open.3 It is reachable by a drive-up route, but because work is ongoing, visitors should check current Nez Perce–Clearwater National Forest guidance before planning to climb or enter the cabin, and should not treat it as open to the public until the Forest Service says otherwise.

  1. Square Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/square-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Square Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/squaremtn.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Square Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/square-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Square Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Square Mtn. in 1999
Square Mtn. in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Nez Perce N.F., the Fire Lookout Museum, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Square Mtn. in 1999
Square Mtn. in 1999 (1999)Photo: the Nez Perce N.F., the Fire Lookout Museum, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Square Mtn. in 2018
Square Mtn. in 2018 (2018)Photo: the Nez Perce N.F., the Fire Lookout Museum, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Square Mountain Lookout
Square Mountain LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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. 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
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, photos, 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
  4. Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) Gave us: 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
  5. 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
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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, status, 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.