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Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Blackpine Mountain Lookout (now at the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center)

Also known as Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center

Granite County, MT lookout built about 1938-39 per Forest Lookouts (firelookout.com says 1933); its top cab was moved to the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center as a display in 1978, and current display is not confirmed.

Original site: Blackpine Mountain

Visit & stay

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

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. The Forest Service page says the visitor center is closed for renovations; pre-scheduled tours can be requested by email or phone

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cab50-foot cable-braced round timber tower (plan L-11) with a 14-foot-square L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Deerlodge National Forest (original tower); US Forest Service (visitor center display)
Land
Unknown
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
46.92592, −114.09159
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-blackpine-mountain-at-missoula-smokejumper-visitor-center

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 3.9 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. 1933 BuiltDisputed: firelookout.com says constructed in 1933; not matched by the 1938-39 recordsSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1938 BuiltCCC road work under way in July 1938 and being finished in November 1938; plan L-11 tower with L-4 cab completed by the end of 1938 or early 1939, per the Forest Lookouts page; six miles of road reported constructed in the October 1939 itemSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 BuiltOctober 1939 newspaper item, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, reports a 50-foot tower erectedSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1939 and 1977
  5. 1977 RemovedOctober 1977 newspaper report: the lookout was being disassembled to move to Missoula for displaySource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1978 MovedCab moved to the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center as a display, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  7. Date unknown MovedMoved from Blackpine Mountain to the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center.Source: FFLA
  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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The cab that was moved to the Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center came from a lookout on Black Pine Mountain, about nine miles northwest of Philipsburg in Granite County, Montana.1 In 1938 Civilian Conservation Corps workers were building the road to the site, and by October 1939 a newspaper said six miles of it had been constructed.2 The 50-foot round timber tower with an L-4 cab was finished by the end of 1938 or early 1939.2

An October 1939 newspaper item reported that the tower had been erected. A 14-foot-square house crowned it and served as the lookout man's living quarters.2 The sources disagree on the start date. Firelookout.com says the tower was constructed in 1933, which does not match the 1938 and 1939 records.1,2

The lookout man kept watch each summer.2 A 1977 newspaper report said the lookout had served as a fire-spotting post for more than 30 years.2 The sources we read do not name the lookout men or any specific fire.

In October 1977 a newspaper reported that the lookout was being taken apart and would be moved to Missoula for display. Its top cabin was to be shown inside the Forest Service visitor center west of Missoula.2 Firelookout.com says the cab reached the visitor center in 1978.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the original Blackpine Mountain site as gone.3

The visitor center sits northwest of the Missoula airport, at 5765 West Broadway Street.4 The Forest Service page says the center is currently closed for renovations, and that people can ask by email or phone about pre-scheduled tours.4 Both the 1977 report and firelookout.com describe the cab going there as a display, not a tower. We did not confirm that it is still on show, so check the current status before you go.2,1

  1. Blackpine Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/blackpinemtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Black Pine Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/black-pine-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center, US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/fire/smokejumpers/missoula-smokejumper-visitor-center (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.