FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Elk Mountain

Kootenai NF site in Lincoln County: 1923 frame cab, 1940 pole tower with L-4 cab, now in ruins per NHLR and gone per FFLA; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. NHLR says the 1940 pole tower lies in ruins; firelookout.com repeats that wording; the FFLA Montana list marks the tower gone. No source supports a standing tower.

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 sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The designs: L-4, L-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1923
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
6,587 ft (2,008 m)
Agency
US Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.45553, −114.91496
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-elk-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 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. 1923 BuiltDeveloped with a 10x10 ft frame cab and roof platformSource: nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1923 and 1940
  3. 1940 Built10-foot pole tower with L-4 cab, about a quarter mile southwest of the summitSource: nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1940 and 2021
  5. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register as US 1504, MT 82Source: nhlr.org
  6. Date unknown EventFFLA Montana list marks the tower gone; no date givenSource: firelookout.org
  7. 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.

Elk Mountain is in Lincoln County, in the Kootenai National Forest.1 It lies about 28 miles east-northeast of Libby.2

The site was developed in 1923 with a 10-by-10-foot frame cab and a roof platform.1 In 1940 a 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up about a quarter mile southwest of the summit.1 The US Forest Service administers the site.1

According to the register, vandalism and decay have left the tower in ruins.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list instead marks the tower as gone.3 The two accounts word the fate differently, but neither describes a tower still in use.1,3

The register also mentions an L-6 cab about a mile northeast of the lookout, without saying whether it still stands.1 The site was added to the register on January 9, 2021.1 No source describes the summit today or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Elk Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/elk-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Elk Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/elkmt.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Elk Mtn. in 1923
Elk Mtn. in 1923 (1923)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Elk Mtn. L.O.
Elk Mtn. L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Elk Mtn. patrol in 1985
Elk Mtn. patrol in 1985 (1985)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Elk Mtn. patrol in 2017
Elk Mtn. patrol in 2017 (2017)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Standing

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: elevation, design, height, agency, ownership, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.