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Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Davis Point

Lolo NF site 11 miles south of Missoula; its 1957 tower moved to Blue Mountain in 1966 and still stands there; no source describes Davis Point today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The tower and cab were moved to Blue Mountain in 1966; no source read describes the Davis Point site today

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. No source read describes the Davis Point site today; the relocated tower at Blue Mountain is described as heavily visited

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower41-foot treated timber L-4 tower erected 1957The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1957
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lolo National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
46.71696, −113.94453
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-davis-point

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. 1944 EventNovember 1944 Independent Record item: Davis Point selected for a new model lookout; gives 20 miles south of Missoula by roadSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1946 EventJanuary 1946 item: new model lookout described as being completed, with a 40-foot creosote-treated tower and 14x14 cab, for use the next fire seasonSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1957 Built41-foot treated timber tower erected at Davis Point; the 1946 article does not say whether the 1946 structure was the one erected or was replacedSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  4. 1966 MovedTower and cab moved to Blue Mountain southwest of Missoula; the Blue Mountain register entry gives the same moveSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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.

Davis Point is a lookout site in the Lolo National Forest, which firelookout.com places 11 miles south of Missoula.1 A 1944 newspaper item gives a different distance, describing the site as 20 miles south of Missoula by road.2 Firelookout.com also describes an earlier tower in the 1930s, set on a low spur 1.75 miles northeast of Baldy Mountain.1

In November 1944 the Forest Service chose Davis Point for a new model lookout.2 A January 1946 item describes its design: slanted glass windows, a flat roof, and a 40-foot tower of creosote-treated wood carrying a 14-by-14-foot cab with insulated walls and roof.2 The plans were one of four designed by Forest Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., and regional engineers in Missoula made some design changes.2 The item said the lookout was being completed for use the next fire season.2

Firelookout.com and the Forest Lookouts page both give 1957 as the year a new 41-foot treated timber tower went up at the site.1,2

In 1966 the tower and cab were moved to Blue Mountain, southwest of Missoula.2,3,4 The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower had been used in filming Red Skies of Montana while at Davis Point, and that the movie company paid for the slanted glass windows that reduce glare.4

No source read describes what, if anything, remains at Davis Point today, or whether the site is open to the public.1,2

The tower now stands at Blue Mountain, six miles southwest of Missoula.3 The National Historic Lookout Register, which registered it on June 5, 1996, calls it the last working lookout on the Missoula Ranger District.4 Firelookout.com reports heavy visitation, which it ties to the site's nearness to Missoula, and says an interpretive setting has been proposed there.3

  1. Davis Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/davispoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Davis Point, Forest Lookouts (Montana), quoting The Mineral Independent and Independent Record items from 1944 to 1946, montanalookouts.weebly.com, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/davis-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Blue Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/mt/bluemtnl.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Blue Mountain Lookout (Lolo NF), National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/blue-mountain-lookout-lolo-nf/ (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: height, 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, status, agency, access, 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.