FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Powell County, Montana

Arrastra Mountain

Powell County, MT L-4 cab on Arrastra Mountain, built 1930 and abandoned by 1956; removal date unknown and no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned by 1956; the association says it is unclear when the cab was removed

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Helena National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Powell County, Montana
Coordinates
47.07072, −112.82622
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-arrastra-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.4 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. 1930 BuiltL-4 cab built in 1930 per FFLA; Missoula newspaper reported the new station on July 22, 1930Sources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1930 and 1948
  3. 1948 EventIndependent Record: a plane contracted that year would replace the lookout (a plan, not a confirmed end of staffing)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1956 AbandonedFFLA: abandoned by 1956; removal date unknownSource: firelookout.com
  5. 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.

Arrastra Mountain stands about 10 miles northwest of Lincoln, in Powell County, Montana, at an elevation of 7,976 feet.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list gives the site's type as "Ground."3

In July 1930 a Missoula newspaper reported that a new lookout station had been located near the source of Arrastra Creek, about 8,000 feet up.2 The station was meant to serve land the forest had taken on two years earlier, and to give the observer a view of three creek drainages.2 A nine-mile telephone line was to be strung to the site first, and only then was the lookout to take up his post.2 The association describes the structure as an L-4 cab erected in 1930.1

The 1930 newspaper placed the land within the Missoula forest.2 The association lists the site under the Lolo and Helena National Forests, and another listing puts it in the Helena National Forest.1,2

In July 1948 the Independent Record reported that a plane under contract that year was to stand in for the lookout formerly on Arrastra peak.2 The supervisor said that getting supplies to remote lookouts had grown hard, and that air detection sometimes cost less than manning towers.2 The association puts the abandonment no later than 1956, and says the removal date is unclear.1 The two accounts do not line up neatly.1,2 The 1948 report describes a plan, and 1956 is only the latest year the association gives for abandonment.1,2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the mountain today.1,3 We found no information about public access to the site.

  1. Arrastra Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/arrastra.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Arrastra Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Montana Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/arrastra-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (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: 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, 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.