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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Stone Johnny Lookout

Bonner County, ID lookout: 1930 firefinder site, 1935 25-ft pole L-4 tower, one named staffer (1967), destroyed 1969; no current site description found.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed 1969 per Fire Lookout and Forest Lookouts; no source describes what remains at the site

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site Drive-Up; no source describes what remains there now

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower25-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
25 ft (7.6 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.26402, −117.02897
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-stone-johnny

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 4.3 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. 1930 EventSite developed with a firefinderSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1935 Built25-foot pole tower with L-4 cab; Newport Miner (July 1935, quoted by Forest Lookouts) reported it under construction at the crest of the rangeSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1967
  4. 1967 StaffedValarie Croopler listed as known lookout personnelSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1969 DestroyedDestroyed, per firelookout.com, Forest Lookouts and Idaho Fire LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. 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.

Stone Johnny Lookout stood in Bonner County, Idaho, six miles north of Oldtown, in the Kaniksu National Forest.1,2 The site was developed with a firefinder in 1930.1

In July 1935 the Newport Miner reported, as quoted by Forest Lookouts, that the Forest Service was building a new station at the crest of the range.3 The paper added that the station sat nearly on the state line and would overlook the country to the south and east.3 Firelookout.com describes the tower as a 25-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, built in 1935.1

The only named staff member we found is Valarie Croopler, listed for 1967.1,4

Sources give 1969 as the year the tower was destroyed.3,1,4 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list also marks the site as gone.2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site.4 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page tags it "Drive-Up" but gives no current condition.4

  1. Stone Johnny Fire Lookout Tower, Fire Lookout, https://www.firelookout.com/id/stonejohnny.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho Lookouts (Alphabetical List), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Stone Johnny - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/stone-johnny.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Stone Johnny Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/stone-johnny-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Stone Johnny Lookout
Stone Johnny LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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. 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.