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Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Cyclone Peak Lookout

Also known as Cyclone Lookout

A 41-ft timber tower with an R-6 cab, built in 1967 in the Whitefish Range to replace a 1935 pole lookout; staffed in summer, with cab access that varies.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Public trail from a gated dirt road. Entry to the cab depends on whether the lookout is staffed; one visitor found the building locked.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Trail starts at a gated dirt road. Sources give 2.5 miles one way (Flathead Beacon) or 4.2 miles out-and-back (Trekking Wild).
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerR-6 cab on a 41-ft treated timber tower (1967); replaced a 40-ft pole tower with an L-4 cab (1935)The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
6,028 ft (1,837 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Flathead National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.72424, −114.31457
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-cyclone-peak

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 4.3 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. 1935 Built40-ft pole tower with L-4 cab, later replacedSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1935 and 1957
  3. 1957 StaffedEarliest lookout staff entries on firelookout.com (1957 and 1958)Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1967 Built41-ft treated timber tower with R-6 cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1967 Replaced by a new structureReplaced the 40-ft pole L-4 tower from 1935Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1967 and 2012
  7. 2012 StaffedOne of the first three lookouts in the Flathead's volunteer lookout program, with Baptiste and Firefighter.Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  8. 2018 RestoredMulti-day project scraping and painting the cab exterior, catwalk and stair railings.Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  9. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 9, 2021 as US 1499, MT 77Source: 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Cyclone Peak Lookout sits in the Whitefish Range of the Flathead National Forest, about four miles south of Polebridge.1,2 The tower standing there now is a 41-foot treated timber structure with an R-6 cab, built in 1967.3,2 It replaced a 40-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab that dated to 1935.3,2 The record does not say why the older tower was replaced.

The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower is staffed in the summer.3 A 2014 Flathead Beacon guide says the same.4 The site firelookout.com lists known lookout staff beginning with a married couple in 1957 and a man in 1958.2 The sources I checked describe no fires, storm damage or rebuilds after 1967.

A hiking guide still calls it an active fire lookout.1 The NHLR registered it on January 9, 2021, as US 1499, MT 77.3

The Flathead Beacon says the route begins at a gated dirt road and gains about 1,000 feet to the tower.4 The guides do not agree on the distance. The Flathead Beacon calls it a 2.5-mile jaunt, while Trekking Wild describes a 4.2-mile out-and-back hike.4,1 One Trekking Wild visitor found the building locked on an earlier fall hike.1 On a later visit a volunteer doing maintenance on the windows invited the writer in for a short tour.1 That guide says access to the building depends on staffing and on whether the person on duty can welcome visitors.1

No rental listing turned up in the sources. Check with the Flathead National Forest before the trip, since the cab may be locked.

  1. Hiking Cyclone Lookout Trail in Flathead National Forest, Trekking Wild, https://www.trekkingwild.com/destination-item/hiking-cyclone-lookout-trail-in-flathead-national-forest/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cyclone Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/cyclone.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Cyclone Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/cyclone-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Cyclone Lookout, Flathead Beacon, https://flatheadbeacon.com/2014/06/17/explore-cyclone-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cyclone Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cyclone in 2004
Cyclone in 2004 (2004)Photo: Dominic Luebbers, via firelookout.com · source

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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, 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. 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: 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, 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.