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Fire lookout · Lewis & Clark County, Montana

Colorado Mountain

Lewis and Clark County, MT tower near Helena: 1930s lookout later built as a 20-foot L-4; destruction dated 1971 vs a 1972 removal plan; only a 2016 forum post describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1971 per firelookout.com; an April 1972 newspaper report describes plans to remove or destroy the tower. The records do not confirm which happened.

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
Trail
A hiker's forum thread started in August 2016 describes a trail to the summit from a trailhead about 10 miles from Helena. No official source describes the route or whether it is open.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 cab on a 20-foot pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1937
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Helena National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lewis & Clark County, Montana
Coordinates
46.50346, −112.20809
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-colorado-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 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. 1930 StaffedMilton Coty named as lookout that season; no lookout station yet on the peak, and a telephone booth was to be erectedSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1935 FireLookout reported a forest fire burning on Deer Lodge land dangerously close to the Helena forest (August 1935)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1937 BuiltFirelookout.com date for the 20-foot L-4 tower; a January 1936 article still described it as unfinishedSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1937 FireFourth fire near Grizzly Gulch in July 1937; two more men sent on top of the two stationed at the lookoutSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1937 and 1971
  6. 1971 DestroyedFirelookout.com date; the April 1972 newspaper report describes plans to remove or destroy the towerSource: firelookout.com
  7. 1972 AbandonedForest Service said the station would be eliminated as surplus, with the cabin and tower to be removed that summer or destroyed if no bidsSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  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.

Colorado Mountain is a former fire lookout about 11 miles southwest of Helena, Montana, in Lewis and Clark County.1,2 It stood in the Helena National Forest.2

A lookout was on the peak in the 1930 season, when Milton Coty held the post. A September 1930 newspaper item noted that there was no lookout station on the peak yet, and that a telephone booth would be erected.2 In late 1935 the forest was building its first permanent lookout station there, a timber tower planned at 20 feet high with living quarters on top.2 Firelookout.com dates the 20-foot L-4 tower to 1937.1 A January 1936 newspaper article still described the tower as unfinished.2

The lookout appears in fire reports from 1935 and 1937. In August 1935 the lookout reported a forest fire on Deer Lodge land dangerously close to the Helena forest.2 In July 1937 a fourth fire near Grizzly Gulch drew two more men, on top of the two already stationed at the lookout.2

Sources give two different endings. Firelookout.com says the tower was destroyed in 1971.1 In April 1972 the district ranger, William H. MacKenzie, said the station would be eliminated as surplus. The Forest Service planned to remove the cabin and tower that summer, or destroy it if no one bid on the structure.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.3 The records do not show which happened.

A hiker's forum thread started in August 2016 describes a trail to the summit that starts about 10 miles from Helena, off a gravel road between Grizzly Gulch and Lump Gulch. The writer saw a few footings from the old tower and wrote that nothing of the tower remains.4 That is an unofficial account, and no official source says whether the public may use the site.

  1. Colorado Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/coloradomtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Colorado Mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/colorado-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Blackhall Meadows: nice hike close to town, Backcountry Post forum, https://backcountrypost.com/threads/blackhall-meadows-nice-hike-close-to-town.6144/latest (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: 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, 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.