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Fire lookout · Shoshone County, Idaho

Walo Point Lookout

Shoshone County tower in the St. Joe National Forest: camp 1929, L-4 tower 1935, destroyed 1952. No source describes what remains at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in 1952; 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?
Unknown
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site a hike-in. The sources read give no route.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 tower atop the northernmost end of the ridgeThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
St. Joe National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Shoshone County, Idaho
Coordinates
47.12390, −115.43710
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-walo-point

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 4.4 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. 1929 EventCamp recordedSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1930 StaffedBoyd Hanna listed among known staffSource: idahofirelookouts.com
  3. 1935 BuiltL-4 tower atop the northernmost end of the ridgeSource: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1935 and 1952
  5. 1952 DestroyedBoth listings give 1952Sources: 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.

Walo Point is in Shoshone County, in the St. Joe National Forest.1,2 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives its elevation as 5,900 feet.3

A camp is recorded there in 1929.2 In 1935 an L-4 tower was set up atop the northernmost end of the ridge.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts also lists a patrol point on Attention Peak.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts names Boyd Hanna among the known staff for 1930, with a reference to Bert Russell's book Hardship & Happy Times.3

Both sites give 1952 as the year the tower was destroyed.2,3

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list marks the tower as gone.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site.1,2,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts labels the site a hike-in.3

  1. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Walo Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/walopoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Walo Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/walo-point-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. 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.