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Fire lookout · Clearwater County, Idaho

Township Butte Lookout

Clearwater County lookout built 1924-1934 as a pole platform, then pole towers; destroyed 1972. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1972; the Forest Lookouts page also marks it Removed, with no date.

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?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 50-foot pole tower (1934)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater Timber Protective Association
Land
Unknown
Location
Clearwater County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.76042, −115.89010
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-township-butte

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 3.9 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. 1924 BuiltPole platformSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 Built80-foot pole tower with a 7x7 foot cabSources: firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 Built50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1954
  5. 1954 EventMaintenance performed on the structure, per the association's 48th annual reportSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1954 and 1972
  7. 1972 DestroyedDestroyed; all three pages give 1972Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Township Butte is a former fire lookout in Clearwater County, Idaho, about 26 miles northeast of Orofino.1 The Clearwater Timber Protective Association is the agency listed for it.2

The site began with a pole platform in 1924.1,2 By 1930 a pole tower 80 feet tall stood there, with a cab measuring 7 by 7 feet.1,2 In 1934 the tower was 50 feet tall and carried an L-4 cab.1,3,2 A 1954 entry, which the Forest Lookouts page cites to the association's 48th annual report, records maintenance on the structure.2

A list on the Idaho Fire Lookouts site names a Leon Green among the known staff, with no dates, and cites a book.3

The tower was destroyed in 1972, according to all three sources.1,3,2 The Forest Lookouts page also marks the site as removed.2

The Idaho Fire Lookouts page tags the site "Drive-Up Destroyed."3 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the ground there is open to visitors.1,3,2

  1. Township Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/townshipbutte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Township Butte - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/township-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Township Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/township-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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, 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: design, height, agency, 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, staffing, 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.