BONNER COUNTY
LITTLE BLACKTAIL
Kaniksu National Forest
55N-2W-22
55N-2W-22
1933: 40-foot pole tower with L-4 cab.
May 4, 1961: "The lookout on Little Blacktail has been torn down and the area has been turned over to the pipeline company. There will be no lookout on that mountain. The fire that was seen one evening was the trash being burned from the building." (Sandpoint News Bulletin)
June 8, 1961: "Little Blacktail mountain lookout tower east of Careywood has recently been razed because of its dangerous condition. The area has been turned over to Pacific Gas Transmission Co. for a micro-wave station.
Little Blacktail lookout was constructed in 1933 and used for fire detection by the Antelope ranger district and later the Sandpoint ranger district, until 1950. The tower was finally dropped from the Kaniksu national forest detection system due to better coverage by other lookouts and increasing reliance on airplanes.
From 1952 through 1958, it was used by the state of Idaho forestry under a special use permit from the U.S. forest service. State forestry used it for fire detection from Athol to Sandpoint and as far west as Spirit Lake and Blanchard. When they constructed their tower on Long mountain, they no longer needed Little Blacktail tower.
In 1959 and 1960 the forest service used the tower only to house a short wave radio relay station which is being moved to a new location. The tower was considered surplus and dangerously deteriorated and was destroyed to make room for the micro-wave station that is being installed by the Pacific Gas Transmission Co. The site for this micro-wave station has been obtained under a special use permit from the forest service." (Sandpoint News Bulletin)
Removed