FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana

Andy’s Knob

Sanders County, MT 30-foot timber pole tower built in 1934 for Lolo National Forest; destroyed in 1957, and no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 towerL-4 cab on a 30-foot timber pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lolo National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Sanders County, Montana
Coordinates
47.54468, −115.63309
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-andys-knob

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 4.1 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. 1934 Built30-foot timber pole tower; sources differ on whether the L-4 cab came with it or was added laterSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1936 StaffedJuly 1936: Red Goff left the lookout; Wright Harris took his place (newspaper item dated July 15, 1936, reprinted on Forest Lookouts)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 StaffedJuly 1937: Bill Alvord stationed at the lookout by the Forest Service (newspaper item dated July 14, 1937, reprinted on Forest Lookouts)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 StaffedEverett Bean, a UNH junior, reported working for the Forest Service at the lookout (Portsmouth Herald item dated August 7, 1941)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1941 and 1957
  6. 1957 DestroyedBoth sources give 1957 as the year the tower was destroyedSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  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.

Andy's Knob was a 30-foot timber pole tower in Sanders County, Montana, about 14 miles west-southwest of Thompson Falls, at an elevation of 5,205 feet.1 The tower was built in 1934 on Lolo National Forest land.1,2

The sources disagree about the cab. The Forest Lookouts page says an L-4 cab was erected on the tower in 1934, while the firelookout.com listing says the L-4 cab was added to it later.1,2

Newspaper items reprinted on the Forest Lookouts page name several people at the lookout in the 1930s and 1940s.2 In July 1936 Red Goff left the job, and Wright Harris took his place.2 In July 1937 the Forest Service posted Bill Alvord to the lookout.2 In 1941 a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, paper reported that Everett Bean, a UNH junior, was working for the Forest Service at the lookout.2

Both sources give 1957 as the year the tower was destroyed.1,2

No source we read describes what remains at the site today, and none says whether the land is open to visitors. Because it is national forest land, check with the Lolo National Forest before going to look for remains.1

  1. Andy's Knob Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/andysknob.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Andy's Knob, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/andys-knob.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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: 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, agency, ownership, 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, 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.