FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Flatiron Mountain

Lincoln County, MT lookout site in the Kootenai NF near Yaak; L-4 cab dated 1933, destroyed 1953 per firelookout.com; FFLA Montana list marks it gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. firelookout.com says the L-4 cab was destroyed in 1953; the FFLA Montana list also marks the site gone

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cab; listed as a ground-level structure by the FFLAThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kootenai National Forest (as named on firelookout.com)
Land
Unknown
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.67514, −115.66608
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-flatiron-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 4.2 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 BuiltL-4 cab, dated 1933 on firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1933 and 1953
  3. 1953 DestroyedPage reads 'Destroyed 1953.'Source: firelookout.com
  4. 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.

Flatiron Mountain sits in Lincoln County, Montana, inside the Kootenai National Forest.1 The Fire Lookout website places the lookout about 11 miles south of Yaak, and gives its elevation as 5,891 feet.1 The association's Montana list gives the coordinates as 48.67514, -115.66608.2

The website dates the lookout's L-4 cab to 1933.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the site as a ground-level structure, not a tower.2

The website says the cab was destroyed in 1953.1 The association's Montana list marks the site as gone.2

We found no source that describes what remains at the site today, such as footings or a foundation, or whether the public can visit it. Anyone planning a trip should ask the Kootenai National Forest about access before heading out.

  1. Flatiron Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/flatiron.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (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. 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.