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Fire lookout · Larimer County, Colorado

West White Pine Mountain Tower Site (now at Running Deer Natural Area)

Also known as Running Deer Natural Area

The 1939 White Pine tower was taken down in the 1970s; only its L-4 cab survives, moved in 2011 to Running Deer Natural Area, though one register places it at CSU's Environmental Learning Center.

Original site: West White Pine Mountain Tower Site

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Forest Lookouts says the repaired cab opened to the public in 2012. It sits in Running Deer Natural Area, Fort Collins; current hours and the cab's exact location were not confirmed.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1978)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabTimber tower with an L-4 cab, built 1939 by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees; only the cab survivesThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1939
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (original tower)
Land
Unknown
Location
Larimer County, Colorado
Coordinates
40.55867, −105.01219
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-co-west-white-pine-mountain-tower-site-at-running-deer-natural-area

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.2 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. 1939 BuiltTimber tower with an L-4 cab built by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees, replacing an earlier crow's nest lookoutSources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1939 and 1964
  3. 1964 StaffedFormer Fort Collins mayor Doug Hutchinson worked as a lookout here in 1964/65Source: firelookout.org
  4. 1978 ClosedForest Service decommissioned the lookoutSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1978 MovedCab moved to Lee Martinez City Park in Fort CollinsSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1978 RemovedTower taken down; the cab was lifted off by an Army Reserve helicopter on November 4, 1978Sources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1978 and 2009
  8. 2009 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 18, 2009Source: firetower.org
  9. 2011 MovedCab moved by truck and trailer to Running Deer Natural Area on August 25, 2011Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 2012 FireHigh Park Fire burned over the original foundation on West White Pine Mountain in June 2012; the cab had already movedSource: firelookout.org
  11. 2012 EventRepaired cabin opened to the publicSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 2012 RestoredFort Collins work days, with FFLA members, reworked, sanded and stained most of the old structure at the new siteSources: firelookout.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  13. Date unknown MovedMoved from White Pine to Running Deer Natural Area.Source: FFLA
  14. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 West White Pine Mountain lookout went up in 1939, when Civilian Conservation Corps crews put up a timber tower carrying an L-4 cab, replacing an older crow's nest.1 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register gives the same year and cab type.2 A former Fort Collins mayor, Doug Hutchinson, had worked as a lookout there in 1964/65.3

The Forest Service took the lookout out of service in 1978.1 That November an Army Reserve helicopter lifted the cab off the mountain and set it down at Lee Martinez City Park in Fort Collins.1 The register says the tower itself was taken down in the 1970s.2

The High Park Fire burned over the original foundation on West White Pine Mountain in June 2012.3 By then the cab had already been moved.1 In August 2011 the cab was trucked to Running Deer Natural Area, a site expected to give the public easier access.1 City-led work days, with help from FFLA members, reworked and stained most of the old structure at its new site, and the cab was placed there as an interpretive landmark.3 The Forest Lookouts timeline says the repaired cabin opened to the public in 2012.1

Sources disagree on where the cab sits today. The register says it is at CSU's Environmental Learning Center in Fort Collins,2 while the chapter report and the Forest Lookouts timeline place it at Running Deer.1,3 The tower has been gone since the 1970s.2 Only the cab survives, and none of the sources confirms its current location. Check with the City of Fort Collins before a visit.

  1. West White Pine, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/west-white-pine.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. West White Pine Mountain Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/co/west-white-pine-mountain-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Colorado chapter report 2012, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-cout-2012.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.