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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Toboggan Hill Lookout

Clearwater NF lookout: 1930 35-ft platform, L-4 cab added 1931, abandoned 1950; a 2023 post reports footings and debris; road passable only on foot.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. FFLA list says Gone; Idaho Fire Lookouts (August 2023) reports cement footings and other ruins and debris on the site

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure 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
Idaho Fire Lookouts (August 2023): fallen trees across the road left foot access only; the crow's nest about one mile southeast was not found

Facts

Status
Ruins
Type
Two-story building35-foot platform tower with L-4 cab on a 10-foot log baseThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.67046, −114.98634
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-toboggan-hill

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.

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History

Then and now

  1. 1930 Built35-foot platform tower builtSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  2. 1931 BuiltL-4 cab on a 10-foot log base added; Idaho Fire Lookouts calls it a 2-story log cribSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  3. 1934 BuiltDisputed. Idaho Fire Lookouts says a 35-foot L-6 tower was built; firelookout.com says one may have been addedSources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1950
  5. 1950 AbandonedAbandoned, per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire LookoutsSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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.

The Toboggan Hill lookout stood in Clearwater County, Idaho, about 12 miles east-southeast of the Kelly Creek Ranger Station.1 It sits at 6,149 feet.1,2 The Clearwater National Forest is the agency listed for it.1,3,4

The lookout began in 1930 as a 35-foot platform tower.1,2,4 In 1931 an L-4 cab went up on a 10-foot log base.1,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts describes it as a two-story log crib.2 A crow's nest about a mile to the southeast served as a second lookout point.1,2,4

The sources disagree about 1934. Idaho Fire Lookouts says a 35-foot L-6 tower was built that year.2 The firelookout.com page says only that such a tower may have been added.1

The lookout was abandoned in 1950.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list marks it as gone.5

An August 2023 post by Idaho Fire Lookouts describes concrete footings and other remnants lying around the site.2 The road was open until recently, but fallen trees have made it passable only on foot.2 The writers tried to find the crow's nest. They said its tree appears to have been logged or burned.2

None of the pages we read says whether the site is open to the public.1,2

  1. Toboggan Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/id/tobogganhill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Toboggan Hill Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/toboggan-hill-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259184 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Clearwater County, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/clearwater-county.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Toboggan Hill Lookout
Toboggan Hill 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.