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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Woodrat Mountain Lookout

Clearwater NF lookout: 1925 log cabin, towers 1928, 1935 and 1950; destroyed 1972; drive-up site, no source describes it now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1972 per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts. Rex's Fire Lookout Page lists it as removed, with no date, and says it was still in use in 1966. No source describes the site now.

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. Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site drive-up. Rex's page says the point is on state land. No source describes current access.

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 41-foot treated timber tower (1950); earlier log cabin and 60-foot platform towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1925
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Clearwater National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
46.18697, −115.76638
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-woodrat-mountain

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. 1925 Built40-foot tower with observatory built at about the same time, per Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1928 Built60-foot platform tower added.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  3. 1934 EventWent to the Nezperce Forest when the Selway was split up in 1934-35, per Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 Built40-foot L-4 tower.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  5. 1946 Last staffedCabin and tower manned seasonally until 1946, per Hartig via Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1950 Replaced by a new structure41-foot treated timber L-4 tower. Rex's page dates the replacement to 1946.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  7. 1956 EventCame to the Lochsa District by boundary adjustment, per Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1966 EventStill in use in 1966, per Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1972 DestroyedDestroyed, per firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  10. 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.

Firelookout.com says a log cabin went up on Woodrat Mountain in 1925.1 Rex's Fire Lookout Page quotes a 1981 history of the Lochsa Ranger District by Louis Hartig.2 In that history, Ranger Jack Parsell of the Middlefork District had a one-room log cabin built there as lookout quarters, before any road reached Woodrat.2 Rex's page also places a 40-foot tower with an observatory on the ridge at about the same time.2

Firelookout.com puts a 60-foot platform tower in 1928, then a 40-foot L-4 in 1935 and a 41-foot treated-timber L-4 in 1950.1,3,4 Rex's page says the cabin and tower were staffed seasonally until 1946, when the Nezperce Forest replaced both with a 41-foot L-4 cabin on a treated-timber tower.2 The two accounts differ by four years on that last tower.1,2 They also differ on the early towers: Rex's page has a 40-foot tower at about 1925, while Firelookout.com has a 60-foot platform tower in 1928.1,2

Rex's page says Woodrat passed to the Nezperce Forest when the Selway was divided in 1934-35, and joined the Lochsa District by boundary change in 1956.2 It was in use as late as 1966, according to the same page.2

Firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts both say the lookout was destroyed in 1972.1,3 Rex's page lists it as removed, with no date.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list marks it gone.5

Idaho Fire Lookouts marks the site as drive-up and gives its elevation as 4,983 feet.3 Rex's page says the point is on state land, although the Forest Service built the improvements there and manned them.2 No source describes what remains at the site today.

  1. Woodrat Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/woodratmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Woodrat Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/woodrat-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Woodrat Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/st-joe-clearwater-region/woodrat-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Clearwater National Forest Lookouts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259185 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Woodrat Mountain Lookout
Woodrat Mountain LookoutPhoto: idahofirelookouts.com · source

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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, height, status, agency, access, 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

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