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Fire lookout · Idaho County, Idaho

Wylies Peak Lookout

Log cabin with cupola on Wylies Peak, built 1925 per the Forest Service; staffed to 1934, NRHP-listed 1975, destroyed 1983; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1983. The Forest Service and Idaho Fire Lookouts say lightning; Rex's page says a structural fire of unsure cause. The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists it as gone. No source describes the site now.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Firelookout.com places the site in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, and Idaho Fire Lookouts marks it hike-in. No source describes the site now or any closure.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Hike-in per Idaho Fire Lookouts; in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness per firelookout.com. No source describes the site now.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabLog cabin with a cupola, perched on a massive granite boulderThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Nez Perce National Forest (Bitterroot National Forest until 1957)
Land
Federal land
Location
Idaho County, Idaho
Coordinates
45.98229, −114.96586
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-id-wylies-peak

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.2 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. 1923 BuiltLog cabin with a cupola built, per Rex's timeline. A 1977 newspaper item quoted there says built 1923 or 1924 by Floyd Cossit and a crew.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 BuiltLog cabin with cupola built in 1925, per the Forest Service, firelookout.com and Idaho Fire Lookouts.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  3. 1925 AlteredLightning protection installed, per Rex's page.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1927 StaffedAl Koenigs listed as lookout personnel.Source: idahofirelookouts.com
  5. 1934 Last staffedAl Williams listed for 1934, the last year staffed; the Forest Service says it was closed that year.Sources: idahofirelookouts.com, idaholookouts.weebly.com, fs.usda.gov
  6. No record between 1934 and 1957
  7. 1957 EventTransferred from the Bitterroot National Forest to the Nez Perce National Forest.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1957 and 1975
  9. 1975 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed June 5, 1975 (reference 75000632), per the Wikipedia Idaho County table. The NRHP index page instead says added 1983.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com
  10. 1983 BurnedRex's page says it burned in a structural fire of unsure cause, lightning or vandalism.Source: idaholookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1983 DestroyedDestroyed by lightning, per firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Forest Service.Sources: firelookout.com, idahofirelookouts.com, fs.usda.gov
  12. 1983 EventDelisted October 17, 1983, per the Wikipedia Idaho County table.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  13. 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.

Wylies Peak's lookout was a log cabin with a cupola, sitting on a massive granite boulder.1 Firelookout.com, Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Forest Service all give 1925 as the build year.2,3,1 A January 1977 Spokane Daily Chronicle item, quoted on Rex's Fire Lookout Page, gives an earlier window of 1923 or 1924, crediting Floyd Cossit and a crew who hauled building logs up the rock by cable.4 Rex's own timeline puts the cabin in 1923.4

In 1957 the lookout passed from Bitterroot National Forest to Nez Perce National Forest oversight.4 Summer staffing ran until 1934, and the Forest Service says it was closed that year.4,1 Idaho Fire Lookouts names Al Koenigs for 1927 and Al Williams for 1934.3

The National Register of Historic Places listed the lookout on June 5, 1975, and delisted it on October 17, 1983, according to Wikipedia's Idaho County table.5 An NRHP index page instead gives 1983 as the year it was added.6 Firelookout.com says it stood abandoned for years.2 A 1977 article quoted on Rex's page said the Forest Service intended to restore the building.4

Idaho Fire Lookouts and the Forest Service both say lightning destroyed the cabin in 1983.3,1 Rex's page instead describes a 1983 structural fire of uncertain origin, possibly lightning or vandalism.4

Firelookout.com places the site in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, and Idaho Fire Lookouts marks it as hike-in.2,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the lookout as gone.7 No source describes what remains on the peak today.

  1. Nez Perce National Forest Lookout Facts, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/media/259200 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Wylies Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/id/wyliespeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Wylies Peak Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts, https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/selway-region/wylies-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Wylies Peak, Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/wylies-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. National Register of Historic Places listings in Idaho County, Idaho, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Idaho_County,_Idaho (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Idaho County (Vacant / Not In Use), National Register of Historic Places index, https://nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/ID/idaho/vacant.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  7. Idaho Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/id/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Wylies Peak Lookout
Wylies Peak 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: 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: 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, 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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