FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Horse Hill

Former frame cabin (1928) then 20-ft L-4 pole tower (1942) in Kootenai NF 26 mi ESE of Libby; destroyed 1975. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1975, per the lookout listing.

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 towerL-4 pole towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1942
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kootenai National Forest
Land
Unknown
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.33193, −114.97685
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-horse-hill

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. 1928 EventFrame cabin listed at the siteSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1942 Built20-foot pole L-4 tower listed for 1942Source: firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1942 and 1975
  4. 1975 DestroyedListing says the tower was destroyed in 1975Source: firelookout.com
  5. 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.

Horse Hill is a former lookout site in the Kootenai National Forest, about 26 miles east-southeast of Libby in Lincoln County, Montana.1 The site sits at an elevation of 4,963 feet.1

The listing records a frame cabin on the site in 1928.1 It dates a 20-foot pole tower of the L-4 type to 1942, and it names a patrol point about half a mile north.1 Photos on the page are credited to Tom Ajootian.1

The listing gives the lookout's dates as 1942 to 1975 and says the tower was destroyed in 1975.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association places the site at latitude 48.33193 and longitude -114.97685, and lists the tower as gone.2

No source describes the site today, including what remains there or whether the public can reach it. Anyone planning a trip should check with the Kootenai National Forest first.

  1. Horse Hill Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/horsehill.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, 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.