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Fire lookout · Ravalli County, Montana

Bare Cone Lookout

Bitterroot National Forest lookout near Darby, Montana: a 1922 log cabin, a 1934 L-4 tower, and the present R-6 cab built in 1962; still in active service.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. Still in active service on the Bitterroot National Forest; the sources give no public visiting rules.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Located 23 miles southwest of Darby on the Bitterroot National Forest, with the West Fork Ranger District as cooperator.
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 cab on a 10-foot concrete baseThe designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
7,822 ft (2,384 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Ravalli County, Montana
Coordinates
45.71917, −114.41222
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-bare-cone

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.6 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. 1922 BuiltFirst structure on the site: a two-story log cabinSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1934 Replaced by a new structureA 10-foot pole L-4 tower replaced the cabin, per firelookout.com; the NHLR says the L-4 was built in the 1930sSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1934 and 1956
  4. 1956 StaffedFirelookout.com names lookouts from 1956 to 1971, starting with J.W. KeenerSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1962 BuiltPresent R-6 cab on a 10-foot concrete baseSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1962 and 2009
  7. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2009 as US 778, MT 44; nominated by Gary WeberSource: nhlr.org
  8. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bare Cone Lookout sits on the Bitterroot National Forest, about 23 miles southwest of Darby in Ravalli County, Montana.1,2 The first structure there was a two-story log cabin, built in 1922.1,2 According to firelookout.com, a 10-foot pole L-4 tower replaced the cabin in 1934, and the register dates the L-4 to the 1930s.1,2

The present cab is an R-6 design on a 10-foot concrete base, built in 1962.1,2 The register describes it with a catwalk, while firelookout.com calls it a flat cab.1,2

Firelookout.com says the tower has been staffed every summer, and it names lookouts from 1956 to 1971. Among them are J.W. Keener in 1956 and Bessie Sopher, who served from 1964 to 1969.2

The register calls Bare Cone still in active service, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's standing list shows it as standing.1,3 The U.S. Forest Service administers it, with the West Fork Ranger District as a cooperator.1 The sources give no visiting rules.1,2

  1. Bare Cone Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/bare-cone-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bare Cone Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/barecone.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts (Standing), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/mt-st/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bare Cone Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Bare Cone Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bare Cone in 1922
Bare Cone in 1922 (1922)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Bare Cone in 1928
Bare Cone in 1928 (1928)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Bare Cone in 1962
Bare Cone in 1962 (1962)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Bare Cone in 1979
Bare Cone in 1979 (1979)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Bare Cone L.O.
Bare Cone L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, U.S. Forest Service and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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 the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1962
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1922

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, height, staffing, photos, 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
  4. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.