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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Swartz Meadow Lookout

80-foot pole L-6 tower built in 1931; destroyed in 1953 or 1954 (sources differ); no source describes what remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed about 1954 (Forest Service list says 1953); no source describes remains

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 access today

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower80-foot pole tower with L-6 cab; cab 7 x 7 feet per Forest Service listThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.78406, −116.11527
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-swartz-meadow

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 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 Built80-foot pole tower with L-6 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. No record between 1931 and 1954
  3. 1954 DestroyedAbout 1954 per firelookout.com; 1954 per Idaho Fire Lookouts; Forest Service list gives 1953Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. 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.

Swartz Meadow sits about 9 miles south of Grangeville, in Idaho County, at 5,200 feet on the Nez Perce National Forest.1,2

A tower went up here in 1931: an 80-foot pole tower with an L-6 cab on top.1,2,3 The Forest Service list gives the cab as 7 by 7 feet.3 Photos on both lookout sites are credited to the Nez Perce National Forest.1,2

Sources disagree on when it was destroyed. The Forest Service list gives 1953, while firelookout.com says about 1954 and Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1954.3,1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as drive-up, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's Idaho list marks the tower as gone.2,4

No source describes what remains at the site today, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Swartz Meadow Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/swartzmeadow.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Swartz Meadow Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/swartz-meadow-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Swartz Meadow Lookout
Swartz Meadow 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: 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. 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.