Caldera Lookout

The lookout the sign points to stands on Bishop Mountain, an old volcanic vent on the caldera's west rim, 7,810 feet up at the end of a Forest Service road. Company 2515 of the Civilian Conservation Corps built it between 1936 and 1938, raising a 72-foot steel tower to a Chicago company's plans and adding a log cabin for the watchers; the sign's 1936 is the year work began. Aircraft took over routine patrol, the tower has not been staffed full time since about 1968, and climbing it is not allowed. The cabin rents to visitors in summer.

What the plaque says

Caldera Lookout High on Island Park Caldera's west rim, a 72-foot Forest Service lookout tower affords an excellent view of this large volcanic feature. No other steel tower has been preserved in this part of Idaho. When it was erected in 1936, lookouts were essential for fire detection in all of this region's forests. This one still is used in times of especially severe fire hazard, but planes now are responsible for regular fire patrol. Forest Service road 80120 ascends to Bishop Mountain lookout at an elevation of 7810 feet. 391 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harriman State Park — 3.5 mi
  The Harrimans would give Idaho their ranch only when Idaho had a parks department fit to run it. The state built one.
• Mesa Falls — 9.5 mi
  The inn went up with a dam in mind. The dam never came, and the Henrys Fork still drops 114 feet untouched.
• Warm River — 14 mi
  Union Pacific built the Yellowstone Branch for tourists. At the bottom of this canyon it turned the engines that pushed them uphill.
• St. Anthony Sand Dunes — 29 mi
  Four hundred feet of white sand, open to machines most of the year and closed to people when the elk come down.

More markers nearby

• Harriman State Park — 1.7 mi
• Harriman Wildlife Refuge — 5.5 mi
• Volcanic Calderas — 7.1 mi
• The Three Tetons — 13 mi