FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Blue Ridge

Lolo NF lookout in Missoula County, MT: 40' L-4 built 1934 (Forest Lookouts says c.1936), last staffed 1955, torn down 1979 after serving as a training site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Torn down in 1979 after serving as a lookout training facility; no source describes the site now

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 tower40' pole L-4The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lolo National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
47.19261, −114.57984
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-blue-ridge

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 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. 1934 BuiltBuilt 1934 per firelookout.com; Forest Lookouts gives c.1936; the April 1934 order for materials supports the earlier dateSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 EventUsed to train lookouts and smoke chasers (Missoulian, June 21, 1935)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1955
  4. 1955 Last staffedLast staffed in 1955Source: firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1955 and 1979
  6. 1979 RemovedTorn down after serving as a lookout training facilitySource: firelookout.com
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is 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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Blue Ridge was a fire lookout in Missoula County, Montana, on the Lolo National Forest, about 14 miles east of Superior.1,2

The tower was a 40-foot pole L-4 design.1,2 Newspaper items reprinted by Forest Lookouts say that in April 1934 materials were ordered for ten new lookouts on the Lolo, one of them at Blue Ridge in the Frenchtown district.2 Firelookout.com says the tower was built in 1934.1 Forest Lookouts gives c.1936 instead.2 We use 1934 because it fits the spring order, although an order does not prove when the tower was finished.

In June 1935 the Missoulian reported that the Blue Ridge site was being used to train lookouts and smoke chasers.2 Firelookout.com dates the last staffing to 1955.1

After staffing ended, the tower stayed in use for training until it was torn down in 1979.1 Forest Lookouts marks it as removed.2

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether it is open to the public.

  1. Blue Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/mt/blueridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Blue Ridge, Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/blue-ridge.html (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: design, 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.