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Fire lookout · Deer Lodge County, Montana

Grassy Point

Also known as Grassy Point (Mountain)

Deer Lodge County, MT wooden L-4 lookout; built 1930s or 1940 (sources disagree), emergency use to 1970, cab collapsed before 2009, now ruins.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Cab collapsed before 2009 per firelookout.com; a memoir describes it collapsing with pieces scattered; FFLA index lists Tower Standing (Ruins)

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure 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
Trail
A road guide describes an unpaved summit road from Dry Creek Road that needs a 4x4 and is not plowed in winter. No source read says whether the site is open to visitors.

Facts

Status
Ruins sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerwooden L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1930
Height
25 ft (7.6 m)
Elevation
7,990 ft (2,435 m)
Agency
Anaconda Fire Protective Association
Land
Federal land
Location
Deer Lodge County, Montana
Coordinates
46.02994, −113.01441
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-grassy-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 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. 1930 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  2. 1940 BuiltBlog memoir says the tower was constructed in 1940. Firelookout.com says only built in the 1930s (see corrections).Source: pintlersportal.com
  3. 1940 EventSanders County Independent-Ledger, July 24, 1940: new tent lookout announced, to be erected soon after July 1 (as quoted).Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 First staffedGuards stationed in a tent camp while the station ran as an emergency lookout (newspaper, Sept 1940, as quoted).Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1947 StaffedFamily of three from Anaconda to take over the post (Billings Gazette, July 1947, as quoted).Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1947 and 1970
  7. 1970 EventLast used for emergencies, per firelookout.com.Source: firelookout.com
  8. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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.

Grassy Point, also called Grassy Mountain, is a summit on the Continental Divide south of Anaconda, Montana, at about 7,990 feet.1,2 Firelookout.com puts it about eight miles south-southwest of town, while a 1956 survey description places it south-southeast, so the direction is in dispute.1,2

Firelookout.com describes a wooden L-4 lookout built in the 1930s.1 A 1956 survey description calls the structure wooden and about 25 feet high.2 In July 1940 a Sanders County newspaper reported that a new tent lookout would be set up on the mountain that summer.2 A later blog memoir says the tower was constructed in 1940.3 The sources do not agree on when the tower went up.1,3

The earliest staffing in these sources dates to 1940, when the station was run as an emergency post and its guards were housed in a tent camp.2 In July 1947 a newspaper reported that a family of three from Anaconda would take over the post for the summer.2 Firelookout.com says the lookout was last used for emergencies in 1970.1

According to firelookout.com, the cab had collapsed before 2009.1 A memoir author who saw the structure from Mill Creek Road describes it collapsing from exposure to the weather, with pieces strewn about the ground nearby.3 The Forest Fire Lookout Association list describes a standing tower with ruins.4

No source I read describes what remains at the summit beyond that, or says whether the site is open to visitors. A road guide says the summit road starts at Dry Creek Road, is unpaved, needs a 4x4, and is not plowed in winter.5 Do not climb the collapsed structure, and check with the land manager before driving up.

  1. Grassy Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/grassypoint.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Grassy Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/grassy-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Silent Reminders: Memoirs from a Fire Lookout, Pintler's Portal, https://www.pintlersportal.com/post/silent-reminders-memoirs-from-a-fire-lookout (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Lookout list for Montana, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. How to drive the unpaved road to Grassy Mountain in Montana?, Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/7234-grassy-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Grassy Point L.O.
Grassy Point L.OPhoto: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Grassy Point in 2015
Grassy Point in 2015 (2015)Photo: 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: Ruins
    • 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, agency, 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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, 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, height, status, agency, 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.