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Fire lookout · Jefferson County, Montana

Blizzard Hill Lookout SIte

Also known as Blizzard Peak

Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF lookout in Jefferson County, MT: 1960 cupola trailer, 1963 two-story cab (register says flat-top tower), staffed 1969-70, now gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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
Two-story building1960 cupola trailer, then a 1963 two-story R-6 cab per firelookout.com; the register describes an R-6 flat top towerThe design: R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1960
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,639 ft (2,328 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Jefferson County, Montana
Coordinates
46.25144, −112.57162 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-blizzard-hill

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1960 BuiltCupola trailer, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1961 EventPhoto caption on the Montana site: mobile lookout on location atop Blizzard Peak, August 1961Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1963 Built2-story R-6 cab per firelookout.com; the register calls it an R-6 flat top towerSources: firelookout.com, firetower.org
  4. 1969 StaffedLawrence Smith staffed the tower; 74 days straight at the site in 1969 according to the registerSource: firetower.org
  5. 1970 StaffedLawrence Smith staffed the tower; 54 days straight at the site the following year according to the registerSource: firetower.org
  6. No record between 1970 and 2022
  7. 2022 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 22, 2022; nominated by Lawrence SmithSource: firetower.org
  8. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Blizzard Hill, also called Blizzard Peak, stands in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, about 16 miles north of Butte.1,2,3

Firelookout.com dates a cupola trailer on the hill to 1960 and a two-story R-6 cab to 1963.2 A photo caption on the Montana site dates a mobile lookout on location at Blizzard Peak to August 1961.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes a different form, an R-6 flat top tower.1 The sources disagree on what stood here.

Lawrence Smith staffed the tower in 1969 and 1970.1 By his own account in the register, he spent 74 consecutive days at the site in 1969 and 54 in the year after.1

Firelookout.com lists the tower as gone.2 The register added the site on May 22, 2022, on Smith's nomination.1

None of the sources says what, if anything, is left on the hill today.

  1. Blizzard Hill Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/mt/blizzard-hill-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Blizzard Hill Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/blizzardhill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Blizzard Hill, Forest Lookouts (Montana), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/blizzard-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

1970 photo
1970 photo (1970)Photo: Lawrence Smith, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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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 location by 1.2 km (0.8 mi).

    • FFLA: 46.25144, −112.57162
    • FFLOS: 46.25782, −112.58482

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: location, 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: 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, 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.