FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana

Green Mountain

Kootenai NF lookout on Green Mountain, Sanders County, MT: 50 ft pole L-4 built 1936, staffed 1956-59, destroyed 1966 per firelookout.com.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed 1966 per firelookout.com; Rex's page lists it only as Removed, undated; FFLA index lists Tower 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
Cab on a tower50 ft pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Sanders County, Montana
Coordinates
47.94758, −115.64703
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-green-mountain-3

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 4.1 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 EventDeveloped as a camp in 1933, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1936 Built50 ft pole L-4 tower built 1936Source: firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1936 and 1956
  4. 1956 StaffedDean Henderson on the lookout in summer 1956 (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, as quoted)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1957 StaffedDean Henderson stationed at the lookout for the summer; he had been up 73 days when he came down in SeptemberSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1958 EventCrew began repairing the telephone line to the lookout (Sandpoint News-Bulletin, June 1958, as quoted)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1959 StaffedCharley Madsen listed as lookout personnel, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  8. 1966 DestroyedDestroyed 1966 per firelookout.com; Rex's page lists it only as Removed with no dateSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  9. 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.

Green Mountain in Sanders County, Montana, stands about eight miles north of Trout Creek, in the Kootenai National Forest.1 Firelookout.com says the site was developed as a camp in 1933, and that its 50-foot pole L-4 tower was built in 1936.1

The lookout had staff in the 1950s. Sandpoint News-Bulletin items, quoted on a local history page, show Dean Henderson on the mountain in the summer of 1956 and stationed there again in 1957, when he came down after 73 days.2 In 1958 a crew began repairing the telephone line to the lookout.2 Firelookout.com lists Charley Madsen as lookout personnel in 1959.1

The tower's end is recorded two ways. Firelookout.com says it was destroyed in 1966.1 The local history page lists the site only as "Removed" and gives no date.2 A Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks the site as gone.3

No source I found describes what, if anything, is left on the mountain, or whether the site is open to visitors.

  1. Green Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/greenmtn344.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Green Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/green-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lookout list for Montana, 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. 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
  4. 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.