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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Weitas Butte Lookout

1931 pole lookout replaced by a 1953 53-ft timber tower on the Lolo Motorway; rentals ended for safety, now on standby, listed closed by the Forest Service.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Forest Service lists the site as closed and not available for rental. Treat the tower as off-limits to climbing.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Off FS Road 500/557 on the Lolo Motorway, about 3 miles north of Rocky Ridge Lake. Sources differ on distance from Pierce (16 or 38 miles).
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 53-ft treated timber tower (1953); original L-4 cab on a 30-ft pole tower (1931)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
5,967 ft (1,819 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.47056, −115.45222
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-weitas-butte

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1931 BuiltOriginal 30-ft pole tower with an L-4 cab.Sources: nhlr.org, fs.usda.gov, idahofirelookouts.com
  2. 1935 AlteredGarage added to the lookout site.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1953
  4. 1953 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1953 Replaced by a new structurePole tower replaced by a 53-ft treated timber tower with a 14x14 ft L-4 cab.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1953 and 1983
  7. 1983 Opened as a rentalPlaced in the rental program, one of the first lookouts so placed; rentals later stopped for safety concerns.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. No record between 1983 and 2006
  9. 2006 RestoredSafety upgrade work was started.Source: firelookout.org
  10. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register on April 6, 2009.Source: nhlr.org
  11. No record between 2009 and 2025
  12. 2025 ClosedForest Service page (updated February 19, 2025) lists the site as closed and not currently available for rental.Source: fs.usda.gov
  13. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Weitas Butte Lookout sits at 5,967 feet on the Clearwater National Forest, just three miles north of Rocky Ridge Lake along the historic Lolo Motorway.1,2 Its first lookout went up in 1931, a 30-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab on top.3,2,4 A garage was added in 1935.1,4 In 1953 the pole tower was replaced by the timber structure visitors see today, a 53-foot tower with a 14-by-14-foot L-4 cab.3,1

The site was first known by a name that the Forest Service, when preparing maps, judged unfit for print, so it became Weitas.4 Sources give different distances from Pierce: Firelookout.com says 16 miles east, while the Forest Service directions say 38 miles east, off Forest Roads 500 and 557.1,2

The tower was one of the first lookouts placed in the rental system in 1983, and it could sleep up to four guests.3,2 The National Historic Lookout Register added it on April 6, 2009.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts has no documented staffing history for the tower.4

Rentals ended because of safety concerns, and the tower is now on standby.4 Firelookout.com also lists it as on standby.1 The Forest Service page, last updated February 19, 2025, lists the site as closed and not available for rental.2 The National Historic Lookout Register entry says rentals were expected to return in 2015.3

Today the tower is a drive-up site on standby.4 Check with the Forest Service before you plan a trip.

  1. Weitas Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/weitas.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Weitas Butte Lookout, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/nezperce-clearwater/recreation/weitas-butte-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Weitas Butte Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/weitas-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Weitas Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/weitas-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Weitas Butte Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Exterior
ExteriorPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Interior
InteriorPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Interior
InteriorPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Deck
DeckPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Weitas Butte in 1953
Weitas Butte in 1953 (1953)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Weitas Butte in 1986
Weitas Butte in 1986 (1986)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Weitas Butte in 2014
Weitas Butte in 2014 (2014)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Weitas Butte Lookout
Weitas Butte LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1953
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1931

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: design, height, photos, 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
  4. 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
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.