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Fire lookout · Larimer County, Colorado

Twin Sisters Tower Site

Rocky Mountain NP lookout built 1914 on Twin Sisters; replacement and removal dates conflict across sources; the 1914 stone shelter still stands as a radio repeater.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The lookout tower is gone; the 1914 stone shelter still stands and is used as a radio repeater station

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerStone crew shelter built 1914; lookout first a small white wood cab, later steel towersThe design: L-4
Built of
Steel
Built
1914
Height
Unknown
Elevation
11,428 ft (3,483 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Larimer County, Colorado
Coordinates
40.28888, −105.51836
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-co-twin-sisters

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.3 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1914 BuiltOriginally built by the U.S. Forest Service; the stone shelter is dated to the same yearSources: firetower.org, npshistory.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1914 First staffedH.G. Knowles, a fire guard from Longmont, assigned to take charge of the station (July 1914 announcement of the plan)Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1917 StaffedFire Observer Heaton in charge (July 1917 item)Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1922 FireWindy Gulch Trail fire seen from the lookout and checked by rangers (August 1922)Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1925 EventNational Park Service took over operation of the stationSources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1925 and 1950
  7. 1950 Replaced by a new structureNew $16,000 lookout reported completed June 1950; FFLOS says replaced 1950; NRHP nomination says the replacement was built 1949Sources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, npshistory.com
  8. 1951 DestroyedDestroyed by high winds per FFLOS; a March 1951 newspaper report says the station had fallenSources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1953 Replaced by a new structureFFLOS: replaced with an L4-cabbed steel towerSource: firetower.org
  10. No record between 1953 and 1969
  11. 1969 AbandonedNRHP nomination: lookout abandoned and removed in 1969Source: npshistory.com
  12. 1973 AlteredStone shelter converted to a fire cache and radio repeater stationSource: npshistory.com
  13. 1976 RemovedFFLOS: taken down in 1976 (disputed)Source: firetower.org
  14. 1977 RemovedWikipedia: dismantled and removed in 1977 by Youth Conservation Corps members (disputed)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  15. No record between 1977 and 1992
  16. 1992 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesStone building added to the National Register of Historic PlacesSource: en.wikipedia.org
  17. No record between 1992 and 2009
  18. 2009 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 18, 2009Source: firetower.org
  19. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Forest Service built a lookout on the Twin Sisters peak in 1914, the year before Rocky Mountain National Park was established.1,2 A fire guard from Longmont was assigned to take charge of the new station, and a trail up the mountain was finished by September.3

An October 1920 newspaper account describes a 7-by-7 white wood lookout house with windows on every side, about a hundred feet from a small stone house.3,4 From 1914 through 1969 the stone house sheltered crews who manned the lookout.4

In 1917 a fire observer named Heaton was in charge.3 In August 1922 rangers brought under control a fire on the Windy Gulch Trail that had been spotted from the lookout, before it did much harm.3 That October A.H. Heaton closed the station for the winter after painting the building white and putting on new storm windows.3 In 1925 the National Park Service took over the station, which it said had been of much value in spotting fires.1,3

The lookout was replaced more than once, and the sources do not agree on the dates.1,3,4,2 A new $16,000 lookout was reported finished in June 1950, and a March 1951 newspaper report said the station had fallen, apparently in high winds.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says high winds destroyed the 1950 tower the next year, that a steel tower replaced it in 1953, and that it was taken down in 1976.1 The National Register nomination for the stone building says a replacement built in 1949 stayed active until 1969, when it was abandoned and removed.4 Wikipedia gives 1977 for its dismantling.2

The stone house is still there.2 In 1973 the building was converted to a fire cache and radio repeater station,4 and Wikipedia says it is now used as a radio repeater station.2 It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 24, 1992.2 The lookout tower itself is listed as removed.5 No source reviewed describes visitor access to the stone building.

  1. Twin Sisters Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/co/twin-sisters-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Twin Sisters Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Sisters_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Twin Sisters - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), http://westlookouts.weebly.com/twin-sisters.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Twin Sisters Lookout, National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service, https://npshistory.com/publications/romo/nr-twin-sisters-lookout.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Colorado Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/co/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Twin Sisters Tower Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Stone house residence, 1925
Stone house residence, 1925 (1925)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Original D-6 cupola
Original D-6 cupolaPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.