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Fire lookout · Lemhi County, Idaho

Swan Peak Lookout Site

Kootenai County Swan Peak: camp by 1931, L-4 tower in 1934, destroyed 1955. The register's US 831 is a different Lemhi County site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1955 per three sources; none describes what remains today

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?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Listed as a hike-in site on Idaho Fire Lookouts; no trail details given

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
8,417 ft (2,566 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lemhi County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.50666, −116.64050 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-swan-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 3.7 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. 1931 EventCamp on the site (Kootenai County tower)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltL-4 tower (Kootenai County tower)Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 StaffedJack Noble named as forest lookout in an August 1934 Sandpoint newspaper item, quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1955
  5. 1955 DestroyedDestroyed; sources do not give a causeSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1955 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: January 24, 2011Source: FFLOS register entry
  8. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

A camp stood on Swan Peak by 1931, in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest about seven miles northeast of Harrison, Kootenai County, Idaho.1,2 In 1934 an L-4 tower went up there.1,2,3

Idaho Fire Lookouts says it has no documented staffing history for the tower.2 The Forest Lookouts site does quote an August 1934 Sandpoint newspaper item that calls Jack Noble the forest lookout on Swan Mountain.3 The item says a mother bear chased Noble up a small tree, and that his spaniel, Hobo, came to his aid.3

The tower was destroyed in 1955, according to three sources that give that date.1,2,3 The sources do not say how.

We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains of the tower today. Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in, so visitors reach it on foot, but it does not say whether the site is open to the public.2

The Former Fire Lookout Sites register uses the number US 831 for a different Swan Peak, on the Salmon National Forest in Lemhi County.4 The register says that tower was constructed in 1940, abandoned in 1942, and gone sometime after 1983.4 Its elevation and location do not match the Kootenai County tower, so that register number belongs to the Lemhi County site.1,4

  1. Swan Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/swanpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Swan Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/swan-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Swan Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/swan-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Swan Peak Lookout Site (US 831), Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/swan-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Swan Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Swan Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Swan Peak Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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.

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 the location by 335 km (208 mi).

    • FFLA: 47.50666, −116.64050
    • FFLOS: 45.01428, −114.19210

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: location, 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: 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: dates, 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 LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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.