FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Horse Mountain

Kootenai NF lookout: camp 1914, cabin and platform 1915, cab 1921, 50-ft pole L-4 tower 1941, destroyed 1975. FFLA index lists it as gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1975; 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 tower from 1941, after a 50-ft three-tree platform with a cab (1915-1941)The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1915
Height
50 ft (15.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.13946, −115.48050
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-horse-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 4.5 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. 1914 EventEstablished as a campSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1915 BuiltLog cabin and 50-ft three-tree platform built the year after the camp was establishedSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1921 AlteredCab added atop the platformSource: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1921 and 1941
  5. 1941 Replaced by a new structure50-ft pole L-4 tower replaced the platformSource: firelookout.com
  6. No record between 1941 and 1975
  7. 1975 DestroyedTower destroyed; the page gives no causeSources: firelookout.com, firelookout.org
  8. 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 Mountain was a fire lookout in the Kootenai National Forest, about 17 miles south-southeast of Libby in Lincoln County.1,2

The site began as a camp in 1914. A log cabin and a 50-foot three-tree platform followed the next year.1 A cab went on top of the platform in 1921.1 In 1941 a 50-foot pole tower of the type the source calls L-4 replaced the platform.1 The page dates the first structure to 1915 through 1941 and the tower to 1941 through 1975.1

That tower stood until 1975, when it was destroyed.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the tower as gone.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, and none says whether the public may visit. Check with the Kootenai National Forest before going.

  1. Horse Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/horsemtn334.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Horse Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Montana Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/horse-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. 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. 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.