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Fire lookout · Custer County, Idaho

Wild Horse Lookout

Abandoned L-4 ground cabin on the Challis National Forest, built 1935 and left by 1946; restored in the 1970s and registered in 2016.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. TopoZone says the lookout is open to the public. The Register's 2016 visit report describes a long walk up an ATV/UTV road. No closure is recorded in the sources read; TopoZone mentions a 50-inch gate but does not say it is closed. Provisional: rests mainly on one map site.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Idaho Fire Lookouts lists it as hike-in. TopoZone describes a road about 3.5 miles long, climbing 2,500 feet, with a 50-inch gate, suitable only for high-clearance 4x4 vehicles, dirt bikes or hikers. The Register's visit report describes a long walk up an ATV/UTV road.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1946)

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Ground-level cabL-4The design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
9,556 ft (2,913 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, Idaho
Coordinates
43.92731, −114.08461 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-wild-horse

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 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

  1. 1935 BuiltL-4 ground cab, built as part of Forest Service fire lookout work. Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1936.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1943 Last staffedTopoZone says manned until 1943. Other sources give 1946 for abandonment.Source: topozone.com
  3. 1946 AbandonedAbandoned as a lookout.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  4. No record between 1946 and 1970
  5. 1970 RestoredRestored and rehabbed as an outfitter's cabin. Sources give only 'the 1970s'; year shown is the decade start.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  6. No record between 1970 and 2016
  7. 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 27, 2016.Sources: nhlr.org, idahofirelookouts.com
  8. 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.

Wild Horse Lookout is a ground cabin rather than a tall tower.1 It is an L-4 design on the Challis National Forest in Custer County, Idaho.1 Sources give its elevation as 9,556 feet or 9,546 feet, a gap of ten feet.1,2,3

TopoZone says the Forest Service built the lookout in 1935 to help spot and manage forest fires.4 The Register, firelookout.com and the Forest Lookouts page agree on 1935.1,2,5 Idaho Fire Lookouts gives 1936 instead.3

Sources disagree on when the lookout stopped being manned.4,1,2,5 TopoZone says it was manned until 1943.4 The Register, firelookout.com and the Forest Lookouts page date its abandonment to 1946.1,2,5 Idaho Fire Lookouts says it has no documented staffing history for the site.3

The lookout was abandoned in 1946.1,3 In the 1970s the cabin was restored and reused as an outfitter's cabin.1,3 The Register lists it as registered on November 27, 2016, and a June 2016 visit report on file there notes that the catwalk needed paint and repair.1 In an April 2022 post, Idaho Fire Lookouts described the cabin as being in fairly decent condition.3

Idaho Fire Lookouts lists the site as a hike-in.3 TopoZone describes a road about 3.5 miles long that climbs 2,500 feet, has a 50-inch gate, and suits only high-clearance 4x4 vehicles, dirt bikes or hikers. The same site says the lookout is open to the public.4 The Register's visit report describes a long walk up an ATV or UTV road.1 The sources read mention no closure and no rental, though the cabin was once an outfitter's cabin.3,4

  1. Wild Horse Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/wild-horse-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Wild Horse Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/wildhorse.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Wild Horse Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/southern-idaho/wildhorse-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Wildhorse Lookout Topo Map, TopoZone, https://www.topozone.com/idaho/custer-id/tower/wildhorse-lookout-2/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Wildhorse, Forest Lookouts, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/wildhorse.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cabin Interior
Cabin InteriorPhoto: Luke Channer, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Wild Horse Lookout
Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
June 2016 photo
June 2016 photo (2016)Photo: Aaron English, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Wild Horse in 2016
Wild Horse in 2016 (2016)Photo: Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Wild Horse Lookout
Wild Horse 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 location by 660 m.

    • NHLR: 43.92731, −114.08461
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): 43.93169, −114.09023

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Standing
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing
    • Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com): Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. idahofirelookouts.com's status is read from a short summary.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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: 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: 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
  5. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.