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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Barren Peak Lookout

Kootenai National Forest lookout in Lincoln County, MT, built 1940 with an L-4 cab; abandoned since the 1970s, with its cab collapsed by 2017.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Abandoned since the 1970s; the cab had collapsed by 2017 (firelookout.com)

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure to climb or rent.

Access

Open to the public. Reached on foot from a forest road to the trailhead; no closure or private land described in the sources read. The collapsed cab is not a place to climb.

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Trail 299 about 2.7 miles to Divide Trail 6, then an unmarked spur to the summit (SummitPost)

Facts

Status
Ruins sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower10' wooden tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1940
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,365 ft (1,635 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Kootenai National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.02539, −115.41407
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-barren-peak

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 4.2 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. 1940 BuiltBuilt as a wooden tower with L-4 cab, replacing an earlier campSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1944 StaffedJohn M. Richards manned the lookout in the summers of 1944 and 1945, during World War IISource: nhlr.org
  3. No record between 1944 and 1966
  4. 1966 EventUSGS topographic map portrayed in 1966 (published 1971) marks a lookout tower on the peak, as described by PastmapsSource: pastmaps.com
  5. 1970 AbandonedAbandoned 'since the 1970s'; the sources give a decade, not an exact yearSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1970 and 2011
  7. 2011 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 7, 2011 as US 905, MT 53; nominated by John M. RichardsSource: nhlr.org
  8. 2017 EventCab had collapsed by 2017, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  9. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Barren Peak Lookout sits on a heavily forested mountain in the southeastern part of the Cabinet Mountains, in Lincoln County, Montana.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register places it in the Kootenai National Forest and names the U.S. Forest Service as its administrator.2

The register says the lookout was built in 1940 as a wooden tower with an L-4 cab, replacing an earlier camp.2 A firelookout.com page gives the same year and design.3

John M. Richards, who later nominated the lookout for the register, manned it in the summers of 1944 and 1945, during the Second World War.2 I found no notable fires recorded at the site in the sources I read.

The sources date its abandonment to the 1970s.2,3 By 2017 its cab had collapsed, according to firelookout.com.3 A USGS topographic map from 1966, published in 1971, is described by Pastmaps as marking a lookout tower on the peak.4 The register added the site in April 2011 as US 905.2

Getting there is a walk.1 A forest road, 231, reaches the trailhead, and SummitPost describes a route that follows Trail 299 for about 2.7 miles to Divide Trail 6, then an unmarked spur to the summit.1 Trees have grown up around the summit, and that trip write-up says they block the views.1 What remains there, according to SummitPost, is an old abandoned lookout.1 The sources I read describe no closure, but the cab that collapsed is not a place to climb. None of them say whether the wooden tower itself still stands.3,1

  1. Barren Peak, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/barren-peak/823846 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Barren Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/barren-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Barren Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/barren.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. 1966 Map of Barren Peak, Lincoln County, MT, Pastmaps, https://pastmaps.com/map/barren-peak-lincoln-county-mt-usgs-topo-1966-p1971 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Barren Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Barren Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Barren Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Barren Peak L.O.
Barren Peak L.OPhoto: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Barren Peak in 2017
Barren Peak in 2017 (2017)Photo: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, 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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Ruins
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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: design, height, 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. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.