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Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana

Berray Mountain Lookout

Berray Mountain's 1965 R-6 flattop tower, its 1931 and 1940 predecessors, and a 2026 Forest Service note that restoration is underway; the trail is public, the tower is not described as open.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Reached by the public Berray Mountain Trail #967 from the trailhead on Kootenai National Forest land; the trail is open and motor vehicles are barred. The sources do not say the tower is open to climbing, and restoration work is underway.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Trail #967 is Trail Class 3 and leads to the lookout; no motorized vehicles; check with the Cabinet Ranger Station for current trail conditions
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2026)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 flattop cab with catwalk on a 30-ft timber tower (built 1965); earlier 1940 50-ft pole tower with L-4 cabThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1931
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,063 ft (1,848 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest (Cabinet Ranger District, cooperator)
Land
Federal land
Location
Sanders County, Montana
Coordinates
48.13872, −115.82815
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-berray-mountain

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1931 BuiltCrow's nest tower with a log cabin and porch for living quarters; first used about 1931 with a 20-ft observation platformSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 50-ft pole tower with an L-4 cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1940 and 1965
  4. 1965 BuiltPresent R-6 flattop cab on a 30-ft timber towerSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, fs.usda.gov
  5. 1973 Last staffedRemained staffed for fire detection until 1973 per the Forest Service; other sources say regularly staffed into the early 1970sSources: fs.usda.gov, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1973 and 1996
  7. 1996 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register August 20, 1996Source: nhlr.org
  8. No record between 1996 and 2015
  9. 2015 Condition assessmentKootenai National Forest news release dated August 16, 2015 (as quoted on Montana lookout history page): still intact, radio repeater still functionalSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 2017 Condition assessmentAssessment before restoration planning; the lookout had been unstaffed for years.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  11. 2017 RestoredThe Cabinet District installed a new roof to stop water damage (a Forest Service project).Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  12. 2026 EventForest Service page (last updated August 28, 2026) says restoration efforts are currently underway to preserve the towerSource: fs.usda.gov
  13. 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.

Berray Mountain is named for brothers Cap and Jim Berray, who reached Noxon in 1887 and later claimed land on the Bull River.1 The lookout on the summit sits in Sanders County, Montana, on the Kootenai National Forest, about ten miles north-northwest of Noxon.2,1

The first structure, dating to 1931, was a crow's nest tower with a log cabin where lookouts lived.2,3 Early on it also had a 20-foot observation platform, and in 1940 a 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab replaced that setup.1,3 The current R-6 flat cab on a 30-foot timber tower went up in 1965.2,4

Staffing came and went over the decades.1,4 The Forest Service says the lookout stayed staffed for fire detection until 1973.4 A separate history describes it as staffed through the 1930s and 1940s, only sporadically in the 1950s, and regularly again in the 1960s and early 1970s.1 It has seen little use since the 1970s.2

The site joined the National Historic Lookout Register on August 20, 1996.2 A Kootenai National Forest news release from August 2015, as quoted on a Montana lookout history page, called the lookout still intact, with its radio repeater still working.3

The Forest Service now says restoration work is underway, aimed at preserving the tower.4 The route up is Trail #967 from the Berray Mountain trailhead.4 The Forest Service rates it Class 3, bars motor vehicles, and asks hikers to check with the Cabinet Ranger Station for current conditions.4 Hikers who reach the peak can see the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and Scotchman Peaks.4 Nothing in these sources says the tower is open to climbing.4 With restoration under way, the safer course is to keep off it.

  1. Berray Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/berray.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Berray Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/berray-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Berray Mountain - Forest Lookouts, montanalookouts.weebly.com, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/berray-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. #967 Berray Mountain Trailhead, USDA Forest Service Kootenai National Forest, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/kootenai/recreation/967-berray-mountain-trailhead (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Berray Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Berray Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Berray Mtn. in 1938
Berray Mtn. in 1938 (1938)Photo: Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Berray Mtn. in 1938
Berray Mtn. in 1938 (1938)Photo: Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Berray Mtn. in 1997
Berray Mtn. in 1997 (1997)Photo: 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.

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, dates, 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. Northwest Montana Lookout Association Gave us: dates, links Northwest Montana Lookout Association (nwmt-ffla.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, dimensions, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the NMLA page or PDF it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLA records (NMLA publishes none). · retrieved 8 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, height, 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

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