FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Benewah County, Idaho

St. Joe Baldy Lookout

A 1954 L-4 cab on a concrete block tower that replaced earlier lookouts on St. Joe Baldy, now stripped of its catwalk and used as a communications vault.

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. Now active communications infrastructure with its exterior access features removed; not set up for public climbing.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1980s)

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab on a 10-foot concrete block towerThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,827 ft (1,776 m)
Agency
US Forest Service / Idaho Department of Lands
Land
Federal land
Location
Benewah County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.36368, −116.41180
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-st-joe-baldy

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 4.3 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. 1920 BuiltA Forest Service camp was established on the summit in the 1920s.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  2. No record between 1920 and 1935
  3. 1935 BuiltA wooden L-4 cab was built on the summit.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1935 and 1954
  5. 1954 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  6. 1954 Replaced by a new structureThe current L-4 cab on a 10-foot concrete block tower was built on a nearby summit about a mile southwest, replacing the earlier lookout.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  7. 1960 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Warren Hollenbeck listed as lookout personnel.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 1960 and 1980
  9. 1980 AbandonedThe lookout has not been staffed since the 1980s.Sources: nhlr.org, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1980 and 2020
  11. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on December 5, 2020.Source: nhlr.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.

St. Joe Baldy has had fire lookouts since the 1920s, when the Forest Service ran a simple camp on the summit.1 A wooden L-4 cab went up there in 1935.1 In 1954 the agency replaced it with a new structure built on a nearby, slightly lower summit about a mile to the southwest: a Region 1/L-4 cab set on a ten-foot concrete block tower.2,1 A Sandpoint newspaper from that August mentions a Mr. Larson "building a Lookout station for the forestry department" at St. Maries, which lines up with the construction timing.3

Staffing records are thin, but Idaho Fire Lookouts and Firelookout.com agree on at least one name: a Mr. and Mrs. Warren Hollenbeck watched the tower in 1960.1,4 A 1960 Idaho State Journal piece notes that St. Joe Baldy carried a "high lookout" that was expected to bring the state $2,000 a year in added timber revenue, suggesting the tower was still valued for fire detection into that period.3

The lookout was taken out of fire-watch service sometime in the 1980s.3 Its catwalk, shutters, and stairs have since been removed, and the cab itself is now used as a communications vault rather than a staffed lookout.2

Today St. Joe Baldy sits on land managed jointly by the Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Lands.2 With the structure repurposed for radio equipment and its exterior access features stripped away, it is not set up for public climbing or overnight rental; visitors should treat it as active infrastructure rather than a recreational stop. It was added to the National Historic Lookout Register on December 5, 2020.2

  1. St Joe Baldy Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/st-joe-baldy-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. St. Joe Baldy Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/st-joe-baldy-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. St. Joe Baldy, Idaho Lookouts (weebly), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/st-joe-baldy.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. St. Joe Baldy Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/stjoebaldy.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

St. Joe Baldy Lookout - 1959
St. Joe Baldy Lookout - 1959 (1959)Photo: John Crumb, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2017 Catwalk removed - Communications vault
2017 Catwalk removed - Communications vault (2017)Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
St. Joe Baldy in 1953
St. Joe Baldy in 1953 (1953)Photo: Darrell Newcomer, the Fire Lookout Museum, Rex Kamstra, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
St. Joe Baldy in 1959
St. Joe Baldy in 1959 (1959)Photo: Darrell Newcomer, the Fire Lookout Museum, Rex Kamstra, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
St. Joe Baldy L.O.
St. Joe Baldy L.OPhoto: Darrell Newcomer, the Fire Lookout Museum, Rex Kamstra, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
St. Joe Baldy in 2017
St. Joe Baldy in 2017 (2017)Photo: Darrell Newcomer, the Fire Lookout Museum, Rex Kamstra, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · 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.

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

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1954
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1935

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, 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: 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: what it is built of, design, height, ownership, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.