FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Ashley Mountain

Flathead County, MT: 1923 pole tower replaced by a 50-ft L-4 in 1935; staffed 1957-58 and in 1966; destroyed 1976. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FFLA says destroyed in 1976; a Montana listing marks the NGS record as removed. No source describes the site now

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 tower40-foot pole tower with 7x7 ft shake cab (1923), replaced in 1935 by a 50-foot pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Flathead National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.28112, −114.71212
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-ashley-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 4.0 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. 1923 Built40-foot pole tower with 7x7 ft shake cab and log living quarters, per FFLASource: firelookout.com
  2. 1935 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 50-foot pole L-4 tower, per FFLASource: firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1957
  4. 1957 StaffedJoseph Graham named as known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1958 StaffedEdward A. Walters named as known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  6. 1966 StaffedListed among 21 lookouts occupied on the Flathead National Forest during the 1966 fire seasonSource: npshistory.com
  7. 1976 DestroyedFFLA: destroyed in 1976Source: firelookout.com
  8. 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.

Ashley Mountain is a heavily timbered peak about 19 miles west-northwest of Kalispell, in Flathead County, Montana, on Flathead National Forest land.1,2

The Fire Lookout Association says a 40-foot pole tower with a 7-by-7-foot shake cab and log living quarters went up in 1923.1 In 1935 a 50-foot pole L-4 tower replaced it.1 The association also notes a patrol point half a mile to the southwest.1

The association names two lookouts: Joseph Graham in 1957 and Edward A. Walters in 1958.1 A published history of the Flathead National Forest names Ashley Mountain as one of the 21 lookouts manned there in the 1966 season.3 That history says that beginning in 1945, parts of several national forests, the Flathead among them, sharply cut back staffed lookouts and relied on routine aerial patrols instead.3

The association says the tower was destroyed in 1976.1 A 1959 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description, quoted on a Montana lookouts page, gives the structure as a painted wooden cabin raised on four poles and 60 feet tall overall.2 That page lists the record as removed.2 The 60-foot figure is taller than the 50-foot tower in the association's notes, and the sources do not explain the difference.1,2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the peak today.1,2 We found no information on whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Ashley Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/ashleymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ashley Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Montana Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/ashley-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Trails of the Past: Historical Overview of the Flathead National Forest, npshistory.com, https://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/1/flathead/history/chap9.htm (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: 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, 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.