Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho
West Fork Point Lookout
A 1933 40-ft L-4 pole tower in Idaho County, abandoned in 1950; only one cement footing is reported at the site.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Only one cement footing is reported at the site.
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower40-ft L-4 pole towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1933
- Height
- 40 ft (12.2 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Nez Perce National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Idaho County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 46.00574, −115.55119
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-west-fork-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 its recorded height.
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
- 1933 Built40-ft L-4 pole towerSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
- No record between 1933 and 1950
- 1950 AbandonedAbandoned in 1950Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
West Fork Point Lookout stood in Idaho County, in the Nez Perce National Forest, at 6,056 feet.1,2 The sources disagree on its distance from Kooskia. Firelookout.com puts it 20 miles southeast of the town, while the Forest Service list says 22 miles.1,3
The lookout went up in 1933 as a 40-foot L-4 pole tower.1,2,3 It was abandoned in 1950.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association now lists the tower as gone.4
Idaho Fire Lookouts found one cement footing left behind at the site, the only trace it reports of the lookout.2 The site is filed under drive-up access.2 Idaho Fire Lookouts also found a benchmark and describes the location as gorgeous.2 Apart from the footing and the benchmark, no source describes the site today, and none says whether the spot is open to visitors.1,2,3
- West Fork Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/westforkpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- West Fork Point Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/west-fork-point-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259204 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Idaho Lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Photos
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.
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- Nez Perce National Forest Lookouts (USDA Forest Service) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- West Fork Point on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- West Fork Point Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.