| Drive-Up | Destroyed/Repurposed |
| Elevation: 6424’ft |
HISTORY
1916: A log cabin was built
1928: A cupola was added atop the existing cabin
1950: An L-4 cab was moved from Maple Peak Lookout to this location
1957: A concrete 2 story R-6 flat cab was built
1975: Destroyed/Repurposed
OUR NOTES
The road up to Sunset Peak is very well maintained as it is an electronics site now. They’ve used the concrete bottom floor of the lookout to now house electronic equipment. The cement pad where the cabin was located is still easily found along with 2 benchmarks.
Probably the most interesting thing about this location is the rock carved graffiti. Some of it dating back to 1919. At this point in time we havnt been able to link any of the names to any of the men/women that staffed the lookout. However, from reading an old newspaper article it appears that hiking up to Sunset Peak was a popular pasttime, especially with boy scouts.
There are several carvings that are dated 1919 and 1921, some say “U of W” while others say a town name – like Mullan and Burke. I was able to track down one of the names carved – Frank Norman from Mullan, Idaho. Frank (Orlew Franklin Norman) was a millman at the Morning mine and also a Boy Scoutmaster.
The Norman family still has many ties in the local Idaho and Montana area – we hope they have a chance to visit Sunset Peak and see where their patriarch left his mark.
You can see the names Pat Baudino, OM Porter, Pella and a few others that are too faint to read. Under Pat Baudino it says U of W ’22 and next to Pella it says ’19. I was able to track both of these names (and a few others also carved here) to some student directories from 1919-1922 at University of Washington.
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