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Fire lookout · Beaverhead County, Montana

Bender Point

Beaverhead NF lookout 17 miles NW of Wisdom: watched from at least 1940, 30-ft tower built 1952-53, staffed into the 1950s-60s, a 20-ft tower in 1964, gone by 1976.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone. A 20-foot timber tower is listed for 1964; the site is listed as gone by 1976, and another listing says removed, with no date.

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 tower30' pole L-4 tower (1953); 20' treated timber tower (1964)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1952
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Beaverhead National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Beaverhead County, Montana
Coordinates
45.78200, −113.71519
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-bender-point

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 4.1 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 StaffedFred Haskins gave up the post for the seasonSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1941 StaffedClifford Kearney of Dillon placed at BenderSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1944 StaffedRobert Hilton of Banville, Illinois, took up the stationSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1951 StaffedSonny York on watch when the lookout openedSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1952 BuiltForest Service tower under way in September and October 1952 and reported complete in January 1953; firelookout.com dates it 1953Sources: montanalookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1953 StaffedDon Smith of Butte served there during the summer, per the September 1953 paperSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1954 StaffedMilton Andrews of Yoakum, TexasSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1956 StaffedHomer Meyer, a forestry student at the university in MissoulaSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1957 StaffedBenny Jones, a college studentSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1958 StaffedTerry Browning replaced Richard Pease, who returned to teaching in LimaSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1963 StaffedForest Service lookout men installed at Bender and O'Dell in JulySource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  12. 1964 Replaced by a new structureA 20-foot treated timber tower is listed for 1964Source: firelookout.com
  13. 1976 EventListed as gone by 1976 (firelookout.com); cause not statedSource: firelookout.com
  14. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Bender Point sits in the Beaverhead National Forest, at 8,439 feet.1 The firelookout.com listing puts it 17 miles northwest of Wisdom.1 A 1952 paper gave the distance as 15 miles as the crow flies, or 25 miles by trail.2

A watchman was posted on the spot each summer for nearly ten years before a tower stood there.2 A 1952 Dillon paper said there were no living quarters, just the equipment needed for lookout work.2 Earlier notices name Fred Haskins, who gave up the post for the season in 1940, and Clifford Kearney of Dillon, placed there in 1941.2 Robert Hilton, of Banville, Illinois, took up the station in 1944.2

The Forest Service began a tower in 1952.2 In September the Dillon Daily Tribune described it as about 30 feet high, with a small house on top for the person on watch.2 By early October a four-man crew under Mickey Durant was building it.2 In January 1953 the paper reported it complete.2 Firelookout.com dates the 30-foot pole L-4 tower to 1953, so the build ran from late 1952 into early 1953.1,2

Sonny York had the watch in 1951.2 In July 1953 the paper reported Bill Wilcox of Butte in charge when the lookout opened.2 In September it said Don Smith of Butte had served there over the summer.2 The paper names both men for 1953 and does not say how the season was split.2 Later seasons brought Milton Andrews of Yoakum, Texas, in 1954, Homer Meyer, a forestry student at the university in Missoula, in 1956, and Benny Jones, a college student, in 1957.2 When Richard Pease had to go back to his teaching job in Lima, Terry Browning replaced him in 1958.2 In July 1963 the Forest Service staffed the Bender and O'Dell lookouts.2

Firelookout.com lists a 20-foot treated timber tower for 1964 and says the site was gone by 1976.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list also shows the tower as gone.3 Forest Lookouts marks the structure removed, without a date.2

We found no source describing what remains at the site today, or whether visitors may reach it.1,2

  1. Bender Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/benderpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Bender Point, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/bender-point.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: 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.