Hall Mountain Lookout Site

In 1925, the USGS placed a benchmark at the summit. No lookout was there in the description.

In 1930, a 10-foot tower with an L-4 cab was built.

In 1931, the watchman, J.S. Laughlin, 35, a resident of Greenacres, was severely burned when a lightning bolt struck him in the head and passed down his right side. Dr. C.M. Canning, Ione, reported that a portion of the injured man's scalp was burned to a crisp. The stroke occurred at about 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon during a violent storm that broke in the north part of the county. Laughlin was carried 14 miles on a stretcher over a mountain trail into Ione. It took the rescue party more than 10 hours to bring the injured man out. The bolt was so severe that bushes and trees where the lookout was being built were scorched. Laughlin was employed by the Kaniksu National Forest as a carpenter. He was at work installing the heavy copper wires that would protect the tower from lightning when he was struck. He never fully recovered. At about the same hour as this incident, a lightning bolt struck and killed Glen Butler, lookout on Blacktail Mountain, 15 miles southeast of Sandpoint, Idaho.

In 1933, the USGS described their benchmark next to a new U.S. Forest Service lookout tower, and that one leg of the tower is so close that it was necessary to occupy eccentrically. Access to the summit was from a trailhead at the end of Sullivan Creek Road and then a 7.1 well-graded trail maintained by the Forest Service for pack animals called the Johns Creek Trail.

In the 1950s, the lookout stopped being used. Reason not clear yet.

By 1960, a road had been built along the old pack route reducing the pack on a well graded trail to about 4 miles. The lookout tower had fallen down, and a tall post was left guyed over the benchmark. Surveyors were able to now work directly over the benchmark.

In 1964 the surveyors said the lookout house had been razed, and there were ruins of an old lookout tower.

Hall Mountain Lookout Site (above Sullivan Lake)