FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Gallatin County, Montana

Cinnamon Mountain Lookout

1958 Forest Service lookout with an R-6 cab on a 10-foot tower, Gallatin National Forest, Montana; last used for emergencies in the late 1960s; on the Register since 2002.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot timber tower with R-6 flat cab and catwalkThe design: R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1958
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
9,097 ft (2,773 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Gallatin National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Gallatin County, Montana
Coordinates
45.13000, −111.26667
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-cinnamon-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.

Downloads about 3.7 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. 1958 BuiltConstructed by the Forest Service: 10-foot tower with R-6 cab; Register, firelookout.com and Forest Lookouts agree on 1958Sources: firelookout.com, nhlr.org, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1958 and 1999
  3. 1999 RestoredRehabilitated, per the RegisterSource: nhlr.org
  4. 2002 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered October 31, 2002 as US 460, MT 36; nominated by Gary A. Weber, Montana RegistrarSource: nhlr.org
  5. 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.

Cinnamon Mountain Lookout stands on the Gallatin National Forest in Gallatin County, Montana, about 32 miles north-northwest of West Yellowstone.1 The National Historic Lookout Register says the Forest Service constructed the present tower in 1958, and it names the Hebgen Lake Ranger District as a cooperator.2

The site had a tent lookout before that. The Register describes a "rag camp" lookout there in the 1930s, and Forest Lookouts describes a camp from those years.2,3 The current structure is a 10-foot timber tower with a flat-topped R-6 cab. The Register also mentions a catwalk.2 The Register calls the timber wood, while the other two sources say it is treated timber. All three agree on the height and the cab.1,2,3

firelookout.com says the lookout was last used for emergencies in the late 1960s.1 The Register says it was rehabilitated in 1999 and registered on October 31, 2002, as US 460, MT 36.2

The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as standing.4 The Register gives the elevation as 9,097 feet, while firelookout.com gives 9,235 feet. Our record uses the Register figure.2,1

We found no source that says whether the cab is open to visitors. Ask the Forest Service, starting with the Hebgen Lake Ranger District, before planning a visit, and do not climb or enter a closed structure.

  1. Cinnamon Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page (firelookout.com), https://www.firelookout.com/mt/cinnamonmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cinnamon Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/cinnamon-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Cinnamon Mountain, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/cinnamon-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cinnamon Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cinnamon Mtn. L.O.
Cinnamon Mtn. L.OPhoto: Mark Hufstetler, 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, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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, 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.