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Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana

Clark Mountain

Also known as Clark Peak

Sanders County, MT tower also called Clark Peak: built 1934 as a 20-foot L-4, staffed until 1969, destroyed 1970; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1970 per the Sanders County Ledger; firelookout.com says destroyed in the 1970s.

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 towerL-4 cab on a 20-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Sanders County, Montana
Coordinates
47.54234, −115.31235
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-clark-mountain

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 4.0 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 Built20-foot pole L-4 tower, per firelookout.com, the Forest Lookouts page and the Ledger columnSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com, scledger.net
  2. 1935 FireCrew burning brush around the lookout in September lost control of the fire in high wind; 48 men helped put it outSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1935 StaffedArt Turk sent out as the first lookout of the season in the Thompson Falls district (June 1935)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1943 StaffedMargaret Sullivan employed as the lookout that summerSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1943 and 1969
  6. 1969 Last staffedStaffed until 1969 per firelookout.com and the Ledger columnSources: firelookout.com, scledger.net
  7. 1970 DestroyedLedger column says destroyed in 1970; firelookout.com says destroyed in the 1970sSources: firelookout.com, scledger.net
  8. 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.

Clark Mountain, also called Clark Peak, is a former fire lookout about four miles southeast of Thompson Falls, Montana.1,2 The tower was a 20-foot pole with an L-4 cab, built in 1934.1,2,3 Sources disagree on the forest: firelookout.com places it in the Lolo National Forest, while a Forest Lookouts page places it in the Kootenai National Forest.1,2

The tower was in use the following summer. In June 1935 a Sanders County newspaper reported that Art Turk had been sent out as the first lookout of the season in the Thompson Falls district.2 That September a crew burning brush around the lookout lost control of the fire in a high wind, and 48 men had to help put it out.2 Margaret Sullivan was employed as the lookout in 1943.2 Firelookout.com and a 2021 Sanders County Ledger column both say the tower was staffed until 1969.1,3

The Ledger column says the tower was destroyed in 1970. Firelookout.com says it was destroyed in the 1970s.1,3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.4

No source describes what, if anything, is left on the hill, and none says whether the public can reach the site.

  1. Clark Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/clarkmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Clark Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/clark-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Remember When: Lookouts in Sanders County, Sanders County Ledger, https://scledger.net/story/2021/08/19/communities/remember-when/6635.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (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.