FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Idaho/ Lemhi County, Idaho

Squaw Peak

Bitterroot NF L-4 cab on Squaw Peak, Lemhi County: built 1941, destroyed 1967 per sources; no source describes what remains at the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Forest Fire Lookout Association lists type Ground, status Gone; sources date destruction to 1967

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1941
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Bitterroot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho/ Lemhi County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.52967, −114.60491
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-squaw-peak

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 3.3 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. 1941 BuiltL-4 cab; Rex's Fire Lookout Page credits the date to KresekSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1941 and 1960
  3. 1960 EventPhotograph captioned 'Squaw Peak Lookout in 1960' (Museum of North Idaho, via Spokane Historical); caption says horses and pack animals were the only available transportation to the towerSource: spokanehistorical.org
  4. 1967 DestroyedDestroyed in 1967 per Firelookout.com and Rex's Fire Lookout Page (Kresek)Sources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 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.

Squaw Peak is a lookout site in the Bitterroot National Forest, in Lemhi County, Idaho.1 Firelookout.com places it about 42 miles northwest of Salmon, at 8,681 feet.1

The lookout was an L-4 cab, built in 1941.1,2 Rex's Fire Lookout Page credits that date to Kresek.2

A photograph captioned "Squaw Peak Lookout in 1960" comes from the Museum of North Idaho, by way of Spokane Historical. According to the caption, the tower could be reached only by horse or pack animal.3

Both Firelookout.com and Rex's page give 1967 as the year the lookout was destroyed.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site with the type "Ground" and the status "Gone."4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site, or whether it is open to visitors.

Do not confuse this site with Wahoo (Squaw) Peak, a separate lookout on the Nez Perce National Forest. The Forest Service list gives that one a 1934 build date and says it was destroyed in the 1940s.5

  1. Squaw Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/squawpeak320.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Squaw Peak - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page (Forest Lookouts Idaho), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/squaw-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Squaw Peak Lookout in 1960, Spokane Historical, https://spokanehistorical.org/files/show/4450 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.