Marble Mountain Lookout

Drive-Up	Gone
Elevation: 6300ft	St Joe National Forest

HISTORY

1920: Coeur d’Alene Timber Protective Association established a camp here

Spring of 1923: the Forest Service took over the site

1928: 19 year old Clair Corey was killed by lightning while staffing this lookout

1939: L-4 Tower built

Today: Gone

OUR NOTES

We had to earn this one.

Our first attempt to visit Marble Mountain was in fall when a storm came in and we had to retreat.

Our second attempt came the following spring but the roads were still full of deep snow. We could get close but not close enough.

Our third attempt we almost were foiled again. There was a huge section of road still under deep snow and we couldnt drive around but we made the decision it was close enough and we made the hike in.

We were joined by Billy’s brother Brian on this trip.

We first explored the peak itself – looking for the L4. Unfortunately we werent able to find anything. No ruins, no cement footings, no tie downs. And we havnt as yet been able to track down a photo of the L4 either to compare with the landscape – we’re on the hunt!

We did, however, find the ruins of a cabin. There wasnt much left but we were able to confirm its existence as well as a scarce amount of ruins at the site.

A HUGE shout out to Mary Mills and the Harrison Museum. Mary shared this photo with us of the cabin at Marble Mountain from the Bert Russel collection. This photo is dated “About 1920” and can be found in the book, THE SWIFTWATER PEOPLE by Bert Russel. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Also found at this site: check out the USA carved into this tree at the site!

A MYSTERY!

And now comes the coolest thing that we found at the site! A short distance from the cabin location we found two tin cans that had been nail punched with names and dates, nailed to a tree.