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Fire lookout · Bonner County, Idaho

Whitetail Butte Lookout

A 1924 pole platform became a 40-ft pole tower with an L-4 cab in 1934 on the Kaniksu National Forest; destroyed in 1959. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1959. No source read describes what remains 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
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 40-ft pole tower (1934), after a 1924 pole platformThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kaniksu National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Bonner County, Idaho
Coordinates
48.39815, −116.85797
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-whitetail-butte

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 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

  1. 1924 Built30-ft pole platform. Forest Lookouts dates it c.1924.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1926 FireBlowup on the Quartz Creek fire that threatened the lookout. The year is inferred from 'last summer' in a January 1927 Forest Worker item.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1928 AlteredLog cabin living quarters added.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1934 Rebuilt40-ft pole tower with L-4 cab built, after the 1924 platform.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1936 StaffedJay Pearce 'located at the lookout', per a September 3, 1936 Newport Miner item quoted by Forest Lookouts.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1936 and 1959
  7. 1959 DestroyedAll three pages give 1959.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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.

Whitetail Butte Lookout stood in the Kaniksu National Forest in Bonner County, Idaho, about 15 miles north of Priest River, at 3,105 feet.1,2

The first structure was a 30-foot pole platform, which all three pages date to about 1924.1,2,3 Log living quarters were built onto the platform in 1928.1,2,3 In 1934 a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up, and all three pages date it to that year.1,2,3 A photo in the Marylyn Cork Priest River Historical Collection, dated 1930 to 1950, shows a wooden tower among trees with stairs leading up to an enclosed cabin. The University of Idaho Library hosts the record online, but its Special Collections and Archives does not hold the materials.4

A January 1927 item in The Forest Worker, quoted by Forest Lookouts, describes a sudden flare-up on the Quartz Creek fire the previous summer. The fire came close enough to threaten the lookout. The item says the men on the lookout fled, but the fire died down overnight and they went back to their station.3

A 1936 item from The Newport Miner, quoted by the same site, places Jay Pearce at the lookout.3

All three pages give 1959 as the year the lookout was destroyed.1,2,3

No source read describes what remains at the site today.1,2,3 Forest Lookouts marks the entry "Removed" with no further detail.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts calls the site a drive-up, but the pages read do not say whether it is open to visitors.1

  1. Whitetail Butte Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/northern-idaho/whitetail-butte-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Whitetail Butte Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/whitetail.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Whitetail Butte, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/whitetail-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Whitetail Butte Lookout, University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/priestriver/items/priestriver0215.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Whitetail Butte Lookout
Whitetail Butte LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source
Whitetail Butte Lookout, black-and-white photograph; catalog date 1930-1950
Whitetail Butte Lookout, black-and-white photograph; catalog date 1930-1950Photo: Marylyn Cork Priest River Historical Collection, Priest River Library, via University of Idaho Library Digital Collections; donor M. Hacklander · In copyright; educational use permitted (per catalog rights statement) · 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.

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, 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, agency, ownership, 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, visiting details, dates, photos, 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

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