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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Teepee Summit Lookout

Log cabin in 1933, 30-foot pole L-6 tower in 1934, gone by 1950; site notes report cement footings and wire at the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone by 1950; site notes mention 3 cement footings and No. 9 wire at the summit

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, but its notes describe the approach as a bushwhack more than a hike; no source describes access today

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower1933 log cabin 1/4 mile NW of summit; 1934 30-foot pole tower with L-6 cab; two patrol lookouts nearbyThe design: L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.75303, −116.30114
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-teepee-summit

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 4.1 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. 1933 BuiltLog cabin built 1/4 mile NW of summitSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 Built30-foot pole L-6 tower with L-6 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1950
  4. 1950 AbandonedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  5. 1950 RemovedGone by 1950; Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site Drive-Up Removed; no source says abandonedSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.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.

Teepee Summit sits about 17 miles northwest of Kellogg, in Shoshone County, at 4,087 feet in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest.1,2

A log cabin went up a quarter mile northwest of the summit in 1933, and a 30-foot pole tower with an L-6 cab followed in 1934.1,2,3 Two patrol lookouts were also in the area, one half a mile north-northwest of the cabin and one a mile southeast on Teepee Peak.1,2

The tower was gone by 1950.1,2,3,4 Idaho Fire Lookouts files the site under "Removed."2

Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as drive-up, but its notes say reaching it was closer to bushwhacking than to hiking.2 The same notes also record No. 9 wire and three cement footings on the summit.2 No source describes the site today beyond those notes, or says whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Teepee Summit Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/teepeesummit.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Teepee Summit Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/teepee-summit-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shoshone County - Forest Lookouts, idaholookouts.weebly.com, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/shoshone-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Teepee Summit Lookout
Teepee Summit 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. 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.