FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Huckleberry Lookout

Also known as Huckleberry Mountain

A 1924 pole-platform lookout in Glacier National Park replaced in 1933 by the current two-story timber structure, NRHP-listed in 1986 and reportedly still staffed by the Park Service in summer.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Located within Glacier National Park; access and any climbing would be governed by NPS, not open for casual public climbing

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed during fire season (as of unknown (per firelookout.com summary, not independently dated))

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingTwo-story timber-frame lookout with pyramidal roof, built to a modified U.S. Forest Service plan; replaced a 1924 10-ft pole platform with log cabinThe designs: Cupola house, National Park Service lookout
Built of
Wood
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
6,496 ft (1,980 m)
Agency
National Park Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.60000, −114.13380
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-huckleberry

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1924 BuiltFirst lookout: a 10-ft pole platform with log cabin living quartersSource: firelookout.com
  2. 1933 Replaced by a new structureNPS replaced the 1924 structure with the current two-story timber lookoutSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1933 and 1986
  4. 1986 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to NRHP February 14, 1986 as part of the Glacier National Park Multiple Property Submission, reference 86000346Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  5. 1991 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered with National Historic Lookout Register September 15, 1991Source: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1991 and 2015
  7. 2015 RestoredWith Park maintenance: exterior painted, the many cab windows reglazed and painted, guy wires secured.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  8. 2018 RestoredPark crew re-roofed the lookout; a volunteer re-roofed and braced the outhouse and replaced latches on the vent doors.Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  9. 2021 Condition assessmentNeeds assessment: dry rot, window reglazing, cracked boards, failing catwalk railing and painting.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  10. 2024 Condition assessmentAugust assessment: some rot, rodent access to the cab and a paint touch-up needed.Sources: nwmt-ffla.org, nwmt-ffla.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Huckleberry Lookout sits high above the North Fork of the Flathead River in Glacier National Park, near West Glacier, Montana.1,2 The site's first lookout went up in 1924: a simple 10-foot pole platform with a log cabin for living quarters.3 That structure didn't last. In 1933 the National Park Service replaced it with the two-story timber lookout that still stands today, built to a modified version of a standard U.S. Forest Service plan and topped with a pyramidal roof.1,2

Huckleberry was one of a chain of staffed fire lookouts the Park Service built across Glacier to watch for smoke across the park's rugged backcountry.2 Beyond its construction history, little has surfaced in the sources reviewed here about the tower's staffing record through the decades, any major fires it watched over, or whether it has needed repair or restoration since 1933.

The lookout was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 14, 1986, as part of the Glacier National Park Multiple Property Submission, and it was separately registered with the National Historic Lookout Register on September 15, 1991.1,2 It remains standing and, according to a secondhand summary of its history, is staffed by the Park Service in summer months.3 Nothing in the sources checked here describes any period of abandonment or disuse, though the gap in the record between 1933 and today means that can't be confirmed either way.

Given Huckleberry's location inside Glacier National Park, any visit, climbing, or staffing arrangement would run through the National Park Service rather than a private or volunteer group. Visitors interested in it should check current park guidance, since backcountry lookouts in Glacier are not generally open for casual public climbing.

  1. Huckleberry Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/huckleberry-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Huckleberry Fire Lookout, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry_Fire_Lookout (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Huckleberry Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/huckleberry356.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Huckleberry Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Huckleberry Mtn. in 1926
Huckleberry Mtn. in 1926 (1926)Photo: the National Park Service, Dominic Luebbers and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Huckleberry Mtn. in 1940
Huckleberry Mtn. in 1940 (1940)Photo: the National Park Service, Dominic Luebbers and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Huckleberry Mtn. in 2004
Huckleberry Mtn. in 2004 (2004)Photo: the National Park Service, Dominic Luebbers and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Huckleberry Mtn. in 2018
Huckleberry Mtn. in 2018 (2018)Photo: the National Park Service, Dominic Luebbers and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Huckleberry Lookout
Photo: National Park Service inventory, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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 the year it was built.

    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1924
    • Wikidata: 1933

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: height, 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
  4. Northwest Montana Lookout Association Gave us: design, dates, links Northwest Montana Lookout Association (nwmt-ffla.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, dimensions, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the NMLA page or PDF it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLA records (NMLA publishes none). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.