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Fire lookout · Spokane County, Washington

Long Mountain Lookout (from Idaho, now at Dave Kresek)

Also known as Kresek Fire Tower, Dave Kresek

Steel lookout built 1941 on Spades Mountain, Idaho; moved to Long Mountain in 1963-64; sold and moved to Dave Kresek's land east of Spokane in 1998; NHLR-registered 1999.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. On 30 acres of private property; the Register says visits are by prior appointment through the Fire Lookout Museum

Original site: Long Mountain Lookout

Visit & stay

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

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Visits by prior appointment through the Fire Lookout Museum, per the Register; no public access is described
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower50-foot Aermotor tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab (NHLR); the earlier 1941 steel tower on Spades Mountain is given as 54 feet (FFLOS)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1941
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
2,061 ft (628 m)
Agency
Dave Kresek (private owner)
Land
Unknown
Location
Spokane County, Washington
Coordinates
47.78697, −117.20186
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-long-mountain-at-dave-kresek

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 4.3 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. 1941 BuiltSteel tower erected on Spades Mountain, Kootenai County, Idaho; the Register and the FFLOS record both give 1941Sources: nhlr.org, firetower.org
  2. No record between 1941 and 1963
  3. 1963 MovedMoved to Long Mountain, a station of the Idaho Dept. of Lands near Sandpoint. FFLOS and Idaho Fire Lookouts date the move 1963; the Register and the Forest Lookouts page say 1964Sources: firetower.org, idahofirelookouts.com, nhlr.org
  4. 1967 StaffedJoyce Sprinkle of Tucson began work as fire lookout on Long Mountain (Sandpoint News Bulletin, as quoted by the Forest Lookouts page)Sources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com
  5. No record between 1967 and 1998
  6. 1998 MovedIdaho Dept. of Lands offered the tower for sale with removal required by September 30, 1998; sold to Dave Kresek and moved to his private propertySources: idaholookouts.weebly.com, idahofirelookouts.com, nhlr.org
  7. 1999 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 20, 1999 as US 329, WA 35; nominated by Ray Kresek, Washington RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
  8. Date unknown MovedMoved from Long Mountain, Idaho to Dave Kresek.Source: FFLA
  9. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Kresek Fire Tower began its working life on Spades Mountain in Kootenai County, Idaho, where a steel tower was erected in 1941.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes the tower as it stands today as a 50-foot Aermotor with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, while the Forest Fire Lookout Association's record of Spades Mountain gives the 1941 steel tower a height of 54 feet.1,2

That steel tower was later moved to Long Mountain, a station of the Idaho Department of Lands near Sandpoint.1,2,3 The move is dated 1963 by the Forest Fire Lookout Association and by Idaho Fire Lookouts, and 1964 by the Register and by the Forest Lookouts page.1,2,3,4 A 1959 newspaper item quoted by the Forest Lookouts page reports that a new forestry station on Long Mountain, south of Sandpoint, was nearly built.3

The most recent staffing date in these sources is 1967, when Joyce Sprinkle of Tucson began work as the fire lookout on Long Mountain.3,4

In 1998 the Idaho Department of Lands offered the tower for sale, and the buyer had to remove it from the site by September 30, 1998.3 Idaho Fire Lookouts says the tower was sold that year to Dave Kresek and moved to his private property.4 The Register says Dave Kresek, Ray Kresek's son, later relocated it to a 30-acre site, and records its listing on November 20, 1999.1

Today the tower stands east of Spokane on private land.1,4 According to the Register, visits can be booked in advance through the Fire Lookout Museum.1 No source describes public access, so arrange any visit through the museum rather than going to the site on your own.

The sources disagree on the tower's height and cab. The 1964 Long Mountain listing gives 46 feet for an Aermotor MC-40 steel tower, a 1998 sale notice describes 54 feet with a 12-by-12 wood cabin, and the Register gives 50 feet with a 7-by-7 metal cab.3,1

  1. Kresek Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wa/kresek-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Spades Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites (firetower.org), https://firetower.org/lookouts/us/id/spades-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Long Mountain, Forest Lookouts (idaholookouts.weebly.com), https://idaholookouts.weebly.com/long-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Long Mountain Lookout, Idaho Fire Lookouts (idahofirelookouts.com), https://www.idahofirelookouts.com/cda-region/long-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Long Mountain Lookout (from Idaho, now at Dave Kresek)
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. 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

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