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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Alexander Mountain

Kootenai NF lookout site near Libby, MT: an 80-ft steel tower in the 1930s and a 40-ft L-4 tower in 1934, abandoned by 1942; gone, with concrete blocks left on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed gone by the Forest Fire Lookout Association and removed per Forest Lookouts; firelookout.com says abandoned 1942; a 2026 trip report found concrete blocks on the summit and a collapsed hut on Fleetwood Point

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. A 2026 trip report walked forestry trail FT-270 to the summit; the signed trailhead is about 70 m north of the pullouts. No source read says whether the site is open to visitors

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
The 2026 trip report walked trail FT-270 from a pullout; the signed trailhead is about 70 m north of the pullouts, and the writer says the sign is easy to miss

Facts

Status
Gone sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower40-ft L-4 tower (1934); an 80-ft steel tower is also recorded for the 1930sThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
4,649 ft (1,417 m)
Agency
Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.44029, −115.35387
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-alexander-mountain

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.9 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. 1920 EventSite was a camp in the 1920s (Forest Lookouts, citing Kresek)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 Built1930s: 80-ft steel tower with 6x6 frame cab; firelookout.com places the tower atop Fleetwood Point, 1.25 miles northwest, Forest Lookouts gives 1 1/2 miles northwestSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1934 Built40-ft L-4 tower (Forest Lookouts); location not stated thereSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1942 AbandonedAbandoned 1942 per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1942 and 2026
  6. 2026 Condition assessmentTrip report (August 2026): concrete blocks and rubbish at the Alexander summit; a collapsed hut on Fleetwood PointSource: sonnybou.ca
  7. 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Alexander Mountain lies about nine miles northeast of Libby, in the Kootenai National Forest of Lincoln County, Montana.1

The site was a camp in the 1920s.2 The 1930s brought a six-by-six-foot frame cab and an 80-foot steel tower.1,2 The sources differ on where that tower stood. Firelookout.com places it atop Fleetwood Point, 1.25 miles northwest.1 Forest Lookouts gives the distance as 1 1/2 miles northwest.2

Forest Lookouts also lists a 40-foot L-4 tower for 1934.2

Firelookout.com says the lookout was abandoned in 1942.1 Forest Lookouts says it was removed,2 and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's state list marks it gone.3

A personal trip report from August 2026 describes what is left.4 The writer walked trail FT-270 to the top of Alexander Mountain and found little of the tower left, only some concrete blocks and a bit of rubbish. The writer reports that the summit has no view at all.4 On Fleetwood Point the same writer found only a collapsed hut, and said another tower once stood there too.4

The trip report describes a forestry trail, FT-270, in the Kootenai National Forest, and says the signed trailhead, about 70 meters north of the pullouts, is easy to miss. No source we read says whether the site is open to visitors today, and nothing standing remains there to climb.4

  1. Alexander Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/alexander.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Alexander Peak, Forest Lookouts (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/alexander-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Alexander Mountain And Fleetwood Point, Bou Avenue, http://sonnybou.ca/ssbou2026/alexanderfleetwoodpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: elevation, agency, ownership, links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: design, height, links 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, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.