FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Ravalli County, Montana

Bald Top Mountain

Bitterroot National Forest L-4 tower (1931) on Bald Top Mountain with 1943 personnel; sources agree on 1965 but differ on whether it was destroyed or removed.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Both sources date the end to 1965; one says destroyed, the other says 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
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Bitterroot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Ravalli County, Montana
Coordinates
46.09560, −113.93547
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-bald-top-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 3.7 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 EventDaily Missoulian report, May 8, 1930, as quoted by Kemnow: Darby district program includes a lookout on Baldtop mountain (a plan, not a completion)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 BuiltL-4 tower dated 1931 by firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1943 StaffedKnown lookout personnel: Mr. and Mrs. Steve ThatcherSource: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1943 and 1965
  5. 1965 Destroyedfirelookout.com says destroyed; Kemnow's page lists 'Removed' under 1965Sources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 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.

Bald Top Mountain rises about 14 miles southeast of Hamilton, in Ravalli County on the Bitterroot National Forest, at an elevation of 7,355 feet.1

In May 1930 The Daily Missoulian reported on a Forest Service program for the 1930 season in the Darby district, and said a lookout on Baldtop Mountain was in the planning stage.2 Rex's entry dates its tower to 1931 and calls it an L-4 tower.1 It also names Mr. and Mrs. Steve Thatcher as known lookout personnel in 1943.1

The two accounts agree that the tower was gone by 1965, but they do not agree on how it ended. Rex's entry says it was destroyed that year, while Kemnow's page lists it as removed.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, or whether the site is open to visitors.1,2,3

  1. Bald Top Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/baldtop.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Bald Top Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Montana), Ron Kemnow, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/bald-top-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, 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.