Inland NW Community Foundation

Grants $20,000 for Spyglass Lookout Restoration

In 2011 Lutherhaven Ministries initiated a unique partnership between our own Idaho Servant Adventures, the US Forest Service and the Virginia-based Forest Fire Lookout Association to restore Spyglass Lookout near Shoshone Base Camp. The one-of-a-kind project was recognized by the Inland Northwest Community Foundation with a $20,000 Community Strategies Grant for project materials. That gift was recently matched by a $15,000 US Forest Service grant that comes with a national historic preservation team!

100 Years

In 2011 Spyglass Lookout celebrated its centennial as a U.S. Forest Service lookout point: 1911 to 2011. The last true lookout "tower" in the region, Spyglass was being used as a lookout patrol point just a year after the infamous 1910 fire, and the first permanent structure, a log cabin, was built there in 1922.

Thanks to the new Lutherhaven/Forest Service/Lookout Association collaboration, Spyglass was added to the national historic register.

Idaho Servant Adventures

Idaho Servant Adventures brings hundreds of teens from around the nation to Shoshone and Kootenai Counties for simple, significant projects for people in need: fixing a porch, repairing a roof, painting a house, cleaning a garage, leading summer recreational programs for underserved kids. In the past three summers alone, Idaho Servant Adventure teens have contributed more than 21,000 hours of volunteer labor in Idaho's Silver Valley, on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, and with kids with disabilities in Coeur d'Alene.

Last summer more than 600 youth registered for the program. In 2012 their "To Do List" includes the long-needed stabilization and restoration of Spyglass.

The Collaboration

Lutherhaven took the lead in initiating the project and writing the grant to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, which has a great history with the ministry, having provided a major $50,000 grant to purchase Shoshone as well as numerous pass-through grants for various projects.

Idaho Servant Adventures will provide the majority of the labor force for the Spyglass restoration; the Forest Service will provide professional expertise through their team of historic renovators; and the Lookout Association will provide national backing, added funding, salvaged parts from other historic lookouts used to replace missing elements at Spyglass, and volunteer support. The project will extend over the next several summers.

Spyglass History

Lookouts like Spyglass are disappearing. In the 1930's and '40's there were 98 lookouts on the Coeur d'Alene Ranger District with romantic names like Elk Ridge, Jackknife Peak, Packsaddle Mountain and Burnt Cabin Knob. One by one lookouts in north Idaho were abandoned and destroyed. Today just two of the original hundred remain on the District: Little Guard, a fully restored national historic site directly above Shoshone Base Camp that's part of the National Lookout Recreational Rental Program, and Spyglass Lookout atop 5300-foot Spyglass Peak about 30 road miles from Shoshone Camp.

Spyglass is a true lookout "tower" in the old-fashion sense of the word, sitting atop a 53-foot timber tower. The building was factory built and shipped to the mountaintop for assembly in 1950. The site also includes the lookout residence, a "ground cab" that was the former 1930's McDonald Peak Lookout, skidded to Spyglass in 1940. Spyglass was last staffed in 1978. Since then the facility has witnessed considerable deterioration from weather and vandalism.

The historic restoration is a fantastic project for Idaho Servant Adventure participants because it gives kids from around the nation a truly spectacular "mountaintop experience," teaching the importance of servant leadership, giving back to the community, caring for our natural world, working together, and serving for something bigger than themselves.

Idaho Servant Adventurers played a key role in moving and restoring the historic Frank McPherson Homestead at Shoshone that serves as the signature building of Lutherhaven's new Shoshone Creek Ranch.

Spyglass's Future

When fully restored, Spyglass Lookout will be a public interpretive site on the history of Forest Fire Lookouts and may be open to the public for overnight stays through the National Lookout Recreational Rental Program. Lutherhaven Ministries and Idaho Servant Adventures will ensure the ongoing care of Spyglass as Lookout Stewards.

Special thanks to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation for their support and trust! Their incredibly generous $20,000 grant will provide building materials needed to stabilize and restore Spyglass to its original specifications using original blueprints, and brought in additional funding and the team of restoration experts!