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Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin

Also known as Coal Ridge, Moran Patrol Cabin, Coal Ridge Cabin

Flathead NF cabin built 1928 on Coal Ridge, still standing as the Moran Patrol Cabin; the 1935 L-4 tower beside it is in ruins; reached by hiking Trail 2.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Hike on Forest Service Trail 2 from the Moran Basin Road trailhead; a North Fork Trails report describes road slides that had been cut out only days before. No closure found.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 6.8 miles round trip from the Moran Basin Road trailhead to the ridgetop (North Fork Trails hike report)
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1928
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
7,268 ft (2,215 m)
Agency
US Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.72450, −114.42548
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-coal-ridge-moran-lookout-cabin

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 4.6 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. 1928 BuiltCabin at the northwest point of the ridge; also called the Moran Patrol CabinSources: nhlr.org, gravel.org
  2. 1935 Built20-foot pole L-4 tower about a mile southeast of the cabin; Montana Lookouts gives 24 feetSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1935 and 1960
  4. 1960 EventUsed for emergencies in the 1960s; the source gives only the decadeSource: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1960 and 2014
  6. 2014 RestoredForest Service crews installed new siding on the cabin; the North Fork post links the work to the Northwest Montana Lookout Association's 2014 projects page. The post gives no year of its own.Source: gravel.org
  7. 2016 RestoredVolunteers gave the cabin a fresh coat of paint.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  8. 2017 RestoredGable end, south wall and rafter tails scraped and painted, finishing the tune-up begun the year before.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  9. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 9, 2021 as US 1498, MT 76Source: nhlr.org
  10. 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.

Coal Ridge, in the North Fork country of the Flathead National Forest, has a lookout history that starts with a cabin. The first structure on the ridge, at its northwest point, went up in 1928.1 The register also calls it the Moran Patrol Cabin.1 A North Fork group says it was the original lookout there, though the current map calls it a cabin.2

Two towers followed. A 24-foot pole platform tower went up in the 1930s about 1.5 miles southeast of the cabin, and it is now ruins.3 In 1935 a 20-foot pole L-4 tower was built about a mile southeast of the original cabin.1 Montana Lookouts gives the 1935 tower a height of 24 feet, so the sources disagree on its height.4

Outside the cabin, a metal pole held the Osborne Fire Finder, the tool for locating fire starts.2 The register says the site was used for emergencies in the 1960s.1 We found no source that names who staffed the lookout or any fire it watched.

The 1935 tower is now in ruins, and part of those ruins still stands.1 The cabin is still there.1 Forest Service crews have also added new siding to the cabin, and a North Fork post links that work to the Northwest Montana Lookout Association's 2014 projects page.2

The National Historic Lookout Register lists the cabin as US 1498, MT 76, registered on January 9, 2021.1

Today the cabin stands on land that the Forest Service administers.1 Forest Service Trail 2 starts at the Moran Basin Road trailhead and climbs to the ridgetop, where it meets Trail 14.5 A North Fork Trails hike report gives the round trip as about 6.8 miles and says the old Coal Ridge lookout's remains lie a little way east along the ridge.5 The same report mentions slides on Moran Basin Road that had been cleared only days earlier, so check road conditions first.5

The firelookout.org listing marks the site "Tower Gone," which fits the ruins but not the standing cabin.6 We found no source describing a rental, and no source describing the cabin's inside or its view today.

  1. Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/coal-ridge-moran-lookout-cabin/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. fire lookouts, North Fork Preservation Association, https://www.gravel.org/tag/fire-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Coal Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/coalridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Coal Ridge - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Montana Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/coal-ridge.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Coal Ridge Lookout, North Fork Trails Association, https://nftrails.org/tag/coal-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Montana fire lookouts list, Firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Coal Ridge (Moran) Lookout Cabin
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Coal Ridge patrol tower
Coal Ridge patrol towerPhoto: Leif Haugen and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Coal Ridge L.O.
Coal Ridge L.OPhoto: Leif Haugen and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Moran Patrol Cabin in 2019
Moran Patrol Cabin in 2019 (2019)Photo: Leif Haugen and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Coal Ridge in 2019
Coal Ridge in 2019 (2019)Photo: Leif Haugen and Luke Channer, 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.

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 whether it still stands.

    • Firefinder research: Standing
    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing
    • Northwest Montana Lookout Association: Standing

    Research (2026-10-09) gives standing where the source records give gone. The page shows the researched status; please tell us if it is wrong.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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, height, 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. Northwest Montana Lookout Association Gave us: dates, links Northwest Montana Lookout Association (nwmt-ffla.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, dimensions, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the NMLA page or PDF it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLA records (NMLA publishes none). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, status, 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.