Fire lookout · Boundary County, Idaho
West Fork Lookout
A 1934 35-ft Aermotor steel tower on West Fork Mountain in Idaho's Panhandle; the cabin is gone, the tower still stands, and climbing is not safe.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Reached on foot by Forest Service Trail #347. The tower itself is not safe for climbing.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- About 3.4 miles on Trail #347 from the junction with Smith Creek-Red Top Trail #21; open mid-June through November, weather permitting.
- Staffing
- Not staffed (as of 1950s)
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower35-ft Aermotor steel X-brace tower with 7x7 cab; the 1934 frame residence cabin is goneThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- 35 ft (10.7 m)
- Elevation
- 6,337 ft (1,932 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests (Kaniksu National Forest cooperator)
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Boundary County, Idaho
- Coordinates
- 48.83246, −116.75111 sources disagree
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-id-west-fork
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.
Downloads about 4.1 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
- 1934 Built35-ft Aermotor steel tower with 7x7 cab and frame residence cabinSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- 1935 StaffedL.L. Hydron named in a 1935 Bonners Ferry Herald item, the earliest named lookout in the sourcesSource: idahofirelookouts.com
- 1936 StaffedBurt Callahan named as lookoutSources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
- No record between 1936 and 2020
- 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 2, 2020 as US 1465, ID 157Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
West Fork Lookout stands on West Fork Mountain in Boundary County, Idaho, within the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, at 6,337 feet.1,2 It was built in 1934 with a 35-foot Aermotor steel tower, a 7-by-7 cab and a frame residence cabin.1,3 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives the first construction as 1934 or 1935, so the sources differ by a year on the start date.1,3,4
The earliest named lookout in the sources is L.L. Hydron, cited by Idaho Fire Lookouts from a 1935 Bonners Ferry Herald item.4 Burt Callahan is named for 1936.4,3
The lookout was abandoned in the 1950s, and the register says it has not been staffed since then.1,4 Forest Fire Lookout says the ground cabin is long gone, and the register says only the tower remains.1,3
The steel tower still stands, but its lower stairs are gone and the frame shows wear and damage.1,4 Idaho Fire Lookouts judges it unsafe to climb or explore.4 The Forest Service describes Trail #347 as about 3.4 miles long, starting from the junction with Smith Creek-Red Top Trail #21, and open from mid-June through November, weather permitting.2 The register listed the lookout on December 2, 2020, as US 1465, ID 157.1 A lookout list at firelookout.org shows it as standing.5
- West Fork Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/west-fork-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- West Fork Mountain Trail #347, USDA Forest Service Idaho Panhandle National Forests, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/idahopanhandle/recreation/west-fork-mountain-trail-347 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- West Fork Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/id/westfork.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- West Fork Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com), https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/west-fork-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Idaho lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
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.
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 560 m.
- NHLR: 48.83246, −116.75111
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 48.83160, −116.74356
The map uses the position from NHLR.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
- 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, staffing, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1465 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- West Fork Mountain Trail #347 (USDA Forest Service, Idaho Panhandle National Forests) (opens another site)
- FFLA Idaho lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- West Fork on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- West Fork Lookout on idahofirelookouts.com (opens another site)
- West Fork on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.