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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Turner Peak Lookout

St. Joe National Forest, Shoshone County lookout: a 10-foot pole L-4 tower built in 1934 and destroyed in 1969; an October 2023 post describes only concrete footings and a step.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1969; an October 2023 post describes four concrete footings and a concrete step

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.27315, −115.64440
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-turner-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 4.2 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. 1934 Built10-foot pole L-4 towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1934 StaffedDan Zobel, per Idaho Fire Lookouts, which cites a bookSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1939 StaffedGeorge Terrien for 1939–1940, per Idaho Fire Lookouts, which cites the Former Forest Fire Lookout RegistrySource: idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1939 and 1969
  5. 1969 DestroyedDestroyed; both sources give 1969Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.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.

Turner Peak sits seven miles east of Avery, in Shoshone County, Idaho, on the St. Joe National Forest.1,2 Its listed elevation is 5,825 feet.1,2

The lookout went up in 1934. It was a 10-foot pole tower of the L-4 type.1,2

Idaho Fire Lookouts names Dan Zobel as the staffer for 1934, citing a book.2 It also names George Terrien for 1939 and 1940, citing the Former Forest Fire Lookout Registry.2

Both sources give 1969 as the year the tower was destroyed.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list also marks the tower as gone.3

A post dated October 25, 2023 describes four concrete footings and a concrete step at the site, and says little else is there.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts tags the site as drive-up.2 None of these sources says whether the public may enter the site.

  1. Turner Peak Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/id/turnerpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Turner Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/turner-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Turner Peak Lookout
Turner Peak 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, 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.