BOUNDARY COUNTY

BLACK MOUNTAIN

Idaho Department of Lands
​61N-2E-30
July 14, 1960:   "Black mountain lookout, overlooking Bonners Ferry from an elevation of 6,085 feet, is being manned this year by Hobart H. Riley from Elgin, Ill.  Riley is a freshman forestry student from the University of Illinois."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

August 4, 1960:   "Assistant Ranger David M. Minister reports that road construction on Hedlund Lumber companie's Black creek sale is progressing satisfactorily.  The road will end on the ridge between Black mountain and Clifty mountain and will materially lessen the problem of reaching and supplying Black mountain lookout.  Eventually the road will extend to Clifty where a new lookout tower will be erected in the future."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

July 20, 1961:   "Black mountain lookout overlooking Bonner's Ferry and the Kootenai valley from an elevation of 6085, will soon be accessible by road.  Hedlund Lumber company is logging national forest timber just below the lookout and have constructed an access road to within 1 1/2 miles of the tower.  The Pacific Gas transmission company has a permit to build a road to the lookout to operate and maintain a micro-wave site on national forest land.  Road construction has been started by Bud Palmer of Sandpoint.  Navratil cautions the public that the road has heavy logging traffic from two national forest timber sales in the area.
      Black mountain is manned by James W. DePree of Moscow.  DePree is a freshman forestry student at the University of Idaho.  The forest service policy of cooperating with the forestry schools by employing forestry students during the summer months gives the students an opportunity to round out their training through practical experience in their chosen profession while still in school."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

​August 17, 1967:   "A forest fire that is still out of control is burning on Black mountain, south and east of Bonners Ferry.  They now have 200 men fighting the blaze.  Larry Dungan, former Colburn resident is the lookout stationed atop Black mountain."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

1975:   R-6 cab atop treated timber tower.

August 27, 2002:   "Northern Idaho's Black Mountain is closed because there is no money to repair recent vandalism."   (Bonner County Daily Bee)

August 28, 2002:   "Black Mountain Lookout in Boundary County was vandalized in early August and more than two dozen large trees around the lookout were cut down.
      'Someone used a chain saw to make cuts part way through a main crossbeam of the support structure and on sections of the hand rail on the tower.' stated Lynn Kaney, Acting District Ranger at the Bonners Ferry Ranger District.
      It appears the vandalism took place sometime before Wednesday, Aug. 7.  The first report of the damage came from visitors who had rented the lookout for an overnight stay."   (Bonner County Daily Bee)