FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Elbow Mountain

Also known as Elbow Lookout Tower

Flathead NF lookout on Elbow Point near Seeley Lake: shake cabin built 1926, L-4 tower 1942, removed 1977; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed by the Forest Service in 1977 per the Pathfinder; firelookout.com says it was destroyed in 1977

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

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerShake-framed cupola cabin (1926); standard L-4 cabin on a 30-foot tower (1942)The designs: L-4, Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
5,272 ft (1,607 m)
Agency
Flathead National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
47.39646, −113.74670
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-elbow-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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1926 BuiltShake-framed lookout cabin with a cupola built on Elbow PointSource: seeleylake.com
  2. No record between 1926 and 1942
  3. 1942 Replaced by a new structureOriginal cabin replaced by a standard L-4 cabin on a 30-foot towerSources: firelookout.com, seeleylake.com
  4. 1952 StaffedHenry and Hazel Drenth hired as lookout observers for the summers of 1952 and 1953Sources: seeleylake.com, firelookout.com
  5. 1957 StaffedMr. & Mrs. David Devoto listed as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  6. 1958 StaffedMr. & Mrs. William Hunt listed as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  7. 1970 StaffedCousins Elaine and Nola Kauffman worked the lookout together as a teamSource: seeleylake.com
  8. 1971 StaffedNola Kauffman Estep worked the lookout aloneSource: seeleylake.com
  9. 1972 Last staffedLast staffing mentioned; Elaine Kauffman was reassigned to Cooney partway through the summerSource: seeleylake.com
  10. 1977 RemovedForest Service removed the lookout (Pathfinder); firelookout.com says destroyedSources: seeleylake.com, firelookout.com
  11. 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.

The Montana list calls this lookout Elbow Mountain, while the local history calls the site Elbow Point.1,2

In 1926 a cupola cabin with a shake frame went up on Elbow Point, above the northwest side of Elbow Lake. The lake was renamed Lindbergh Lake in 1928.1 A 1919 forest fire had left the point with little tree cover in the 1920s, and the site itself commanded a striking view of the surrounding drainages.1

In 1942 the original gave way to an L-4 cabin, a standard design, set on a 30-foot tower.3,1 Before World War II, Swan Valley residents Ed Beck, Hans Monrad and Bob Martin worked at the site.1 Husband and wife Henry and Hazel Drenth served as summer observers in 1952 and 1953.1 The firelookout.com page also lists Mr. and Mrs. David Devoto in 1957 and Mr. and Mrs. William Hunt in 1958.3

Cousins Elaine and Nola Kauffman worked the lookout in the early 1970s.1 In 1971 Nola spotted smoke to the southeast of the lookout and called it in. Someone was sent to check, and the smoke came from a woman burning trash in her fireplace.1 On another night, lightning struck a dead snag near Lindbergh Lake.1 Elaine spotted the flames and pinpointed the spot, and a ground crew later mopped the fire up.1

In 1977 the Forest Service took the lookout down.1 The firelookout.com page says it was destroyed that year, so the two sources differ on how it ended.3,1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list marks the site as gone.2

No source we read describes what remains at the site today, or whether visitors may go there. An OpenStreetMap point still carries the name Elbow Lookout Tower, but that is a map entry and does not show what, if anything, stands on the point.4

  1. Elbow Lookout built 100 years ago, Seeley Swan Pathfinder, https://www.seeleylake.com/story/2026/04/02/opinion/elbow-lookout-built-100-years-ago/11769.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Elbow Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/elbowmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Elbow Lookout Tower, OpenStreetMap, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/357955190 (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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: elevation, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.