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Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Cooney Lookout

Also known as Cooney Mountain

Standing Flathead NF lookout near Condon: 1933 L-4 first tower, 1968 R-6 tower; summer staffing by volunteers or DNRC (sources conflict).

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
Trail
Rumble Creek Road leads to a trailhead parking area a quarter mile past the lookout; this is a hiking trailhead, not a statement that the tower is open.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6The designs: R-6, L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1933
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
4,547 ft (1,386 m)
Agency
US Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
47.52321, −113.64507
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-cooney

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. 1933 BuiltFirst tower: 20-ft L-4 cab on a hillside 700 ft above the Swan RiverSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1957
  3. 1957 StaffedA couple recorded as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1958 StaffedAnother couple recorded as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1968 BuiltPresent 30-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flat cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1968 and 2021
  7. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 9, 2021Source: nhlr.org
  8. 2023 EventNMLA trained assessment team leaders here (Swan Lake Ranger District) in mid-June.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  9. 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.

Cooney Lookout stands on a hillside near Condon, about 700 feet above the Swan River, on the flank of the Swan Range.1,2 The first tower there was a 20-foot L-4 cab built in 1933.1,2 The present 30-foot treated timber tower, with a flat R-6 cab, was built in 1968.1,2

Summer staffing has come from more than one group, and the sources do not agree on who does it.1,2 The register says the tower is mostly staffed by volunteers in summer.1 Firelookout.com says the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) staffs it, and it lists a couple recorded as lookout personnel in 1957 and another couple in 1958.2 A 2016 annual report from the Forest Fire Lookout Association's North Idaho/Montana chapter says volunteers provide staffing and maintenance for Cooney and two other Flathead lookouts.3

The register lists the tower as standing and administered by the US Forest Service on the Swan Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest.1,4 It was registered on January 9, 2021.1

I found no Forest Service statement about whether the tower can be visited. A Seeley Lake guide to the Rumble Creek Lakes hike says Rumble Creek Road leads to a parking area a quarter mile past the lookout.5 That describes a hiking trailhead, not a way into the tower. Check with the Swan Lake Ranger District before going, and do not climb the tower unless it is open to the public.

  1. Cooney Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/cooney-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cooney Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/cooney.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. North Idaho/Montana Chapter Annual Report 2016, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-id-n-mt-2016.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Montana Fire Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Rumble Creek Lakes, Seeley Lake visitor information, https://www.seeleylake.com/story/2014/07/31/visitor-info/rumble-creek-lakes/1952.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cooney Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cooney L.O.
Cooney L.OPhoto: the Dave Bula collection, the Fire Lookout Museum, and Gary Marin, via firelookout.com · source
Cooney in 2000
Cooney in 2000 (2000)Photo: the Dave Bula collection, the Fire Lookout Museum, and Gary Marin, via firelookout.com · source
Cooney in 2004
Cooney in 2004 (2004)Photo: the Dave Bula collection, the Fire Lookout Museum, and Gary Marin, 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: what it is built of, 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. 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. 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.