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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Wendover Ridge Lookout

Idaho County tower in the Clearwater National Forest: pole L-4 tower listed for 1934, destroyed in the 1950s. The drive-up site has no remains described.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower destroyed in the 1950s; 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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerPole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.55082, −114.81720 sources disagree
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-wendover-ridge

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 3.6 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 BuiltPole L-4 towerSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1950
  3. 1950 DestroyedSource: Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com)
  4. Date unknown DestroyedDestroyed in the 1950s; sources give only the decadeSources: firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
  5. 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.

Wendover Ridge is in Idaho County, in the Clearwater National Forest, about six miles west-northwest of the Powell ranger station.1 The listing gives a pole L-4 tower for 1934.1

The tower was destroyed in the 1950s, according to that listing and a June 2016 list of Clearwater National Forest lookouts.1,2 That list is hosted on the Forest Service website.2 The Idaho Fire Lookouts page labels the site "Drive-Up."3

None of the three sources describes what, if anything, remains at the site today.1,2,3

  1. Wendover Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/wendoverridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, list compiled June 2016, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Wendover Ridge Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/wendover-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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 location by 1.7 km (1.1 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.55082, −114.81720
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 46.53660, −114.82506

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

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.