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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Van Camp Lookout

Clearwater NF point in Idaho County: 1925 fire-season watch from a tent camp, a 1930 L-4 cab on a tree or pole platform, abandoned in the 1950s. Site today not described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in the 1950s. The association's list marks it gone; no source describes what 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 classes the site as drive-up.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab living quarters on a tree or spar-pole platform (sources give 30 or 50 feet)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.25081, −115.48239
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-van-camp

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 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. 1925 Staffedtwo firemen manned the point for the rest of the 1925 season from a tent campSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1927 Eventphoto described by Forest Lookouts shows a lookout tree with a platform about 50 feet above the groundSource: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 BuiltL-4 cab living quarters with a platform; the association gives 30 feet, the Forest Service list 50 feetSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  4. No record between 1930 and 1950
  5. 1950 Abandonedsources say the 1950s; Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1950Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  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.

Van Camp is a flat-topped point in Idaho County, about 24 miles east-northeast of Kooskia, in the Clearwater National Forest.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association gives its elevation as 4,377 feet.1,3

Toward the close of the 1925 season, the Middlefork District assigned two firemen, Earl Whitney and Russell Stadtman, to keep watch from the point through the end of summer.2 Forest Lookouts quotes a 1981 account saying the pair pitched a tent camp near a water supply, about three-eighths of a mile away, and lacked a mapboard or lookout map.2

Forest Lookouts describes a 1927 photo of a lookout tree whose observation platform sat roughly 50 feet up.2

Three sources date the cab and platform to 1930, but they disagree on the platform.1,3,4 The association describes a 30-foot tree platform with an L-4 cab living quarters.1 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the same 1930 date and a 30-foot tree platform.3 The Forest Service's 2016 list describes a 50-foot spar pole platform with an L-4 cab, also dated 1930.4 The 1927 photo predates the 1930 date, and the sources do not explain that gap.1,3,2,4

The lookout was abandoned in the 1950s.1,4 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1950 as the year.3 A patrol point stood on Smokey Peak, 2.5 miles to the northeast.1,3

No source we found describes what remains at the site today. Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site as drive-up.3 The association's list marks it gone.5

  1. Van Camp Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/id/vancamp.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Idaho County (M-W), Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/idaho-county-m-w.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Van Camp Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/van-camp-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Van Camp Lookout
Van Camp 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, 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.