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Fire lookout · Jefferson County, Montana

Haystack Mountain

Forest Service lookout on Haystack Mountain, Jefferson County, MT: an L-4 cab built 1936, destroyed 1977. A footing and scattered wood remain near the trail's summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab destroyed in 1977. A footing and scattered wood remain at the summit.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. National Recreation Trail on Forest Service land; closed year-round to motorized travel.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
About 3 to 3.6 miles, climbing just over 2,000 feet, per a county write-up and the trail listing.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1920
Height
14 ft (4.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Jefferson County, Montana
Coordinates
46.14154, −112.32601
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-haystack-mountain-2

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 3.8 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. 1920 BuiltViewing platform, per Rex's page and the 2015 photo pageSources: firelookout.com, peakbagging.com
  2. No record between 1920 and 1936
  3. 1936 BuiltL-4 cab, per Rex's page and the 2015 photo page; August to November 1936 newspaper reports describe the new stationSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com, peakbagging.com
  4. 1937 EventLightning struck the station without causing damageSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1937 First staffedTelephone connected; station occupied by July 1937Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1937 and 1954
  7. 1954 StaffedButte district ranger's office installed a new lookout at the Haystack tower; taken up by pack muleSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1954 and 1977
  9. 1977 DestroyedL-4 cab destroyed, per Rex's page and the 2015 photo pageSources: firelookout.com, peakbagging.com
  10. 1979 EventTrail designated a National Recreation TrailSources: jeffersoncounty-mt.gov, nationalrecreationtrails.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.

Haystack Mountain, the highest point in the Boulder Mountains, sits in Jefferson County, Montana.1,2 It carried a Forest Service fire lookout from 1936 until 1977.2 In August 1936 a Butte paper reported that a new station would go on the peak in the Deer Lodge National Forest, with windows on all sides. ERA crews were set to carve and blast a trail up the rock to pack in the equipment.3

By November 1936 the station was complete. A report from that month, which calls the peak Lookout Mountain, says the 14-foot cabin was packed three miles up by pack horses.3 Rex's listing says a camp was set up on the mountain in 1911, a platform was built in 1920, and an L-4 cab was constructed in 1936.1 A photo page dated August 2015 gives the 1920 platform and the 1936 cab as well.4

The station was occupied by July 1937, once its telephone line was connected.3 A report from the same month said lightning had struck the station without causing damage.3 A June 1944 report planned pack-mule supplies for the Haystack and Highland lookouts, with men moving in after July 4.3 In July 1954 the Butte district ranger's office installed a new lookout at the Haystack tower; the lookout was taken up by pack mule.3

Rex's listing says the cab was destroyed in 1977.1 The Forest Lookouts page marks the site as removed, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's list records the site as a Ground type that is gone.3,5

Today, a Jefferson County write-up says only a piling or two, some weathered boards, a coil of cable and rebar are left.2 A 2015 photo page describes only a footing and some scattered wood.4

The summit is on Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest land, and it is reached by a trail that was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1979.4,6,2 The trail is closed year-round to motorized travel, and the trail listing says it is easy to reach from Interstate 15.2,6 The county write-up gives about three miles and just over 2,000 feet of climbing; the trail listing gives 3.6 miles.2,6 Rex's page places the lookout 19 miles northeast of Butte, while the trail listing says 12 miles north of Butte.1,6 We found no source that closes the trail to hikers.2,6

  1. Haystack Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex's Fire Lookout Page), https://www.firelookout.com/mt/haystack.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Haystack Mountain, jeffersoncounty-mt.gov (PDF write-up), https://www.jeffersoncounty-mt.gov/wp-content/uploads/HaystackMountain.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Haystack Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/haystack-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Haystack Mountain (LO site), Montana, Peakbagging, http://peakbagging.com/MTLookoutPhotos/HaystackMtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Montana fire lookouts list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Haystack Mountain, National Recreation Trails, https://www.nationalrecreationtrails.com/trails/haystack-mountain (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: height, 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, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.