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Fire lookout · Mineral/ Shoshone (ID) County, Montana

Illinois Peak

Montana-Idaho border peak; steel Aermotor lookout from 1938, dismantled 1974-76; a climbers' guide says only foundation blocks remain near the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower dismantled in 1974 per Forest Lookouts Montana; firelookout.com gives gone by 1976. Foundation blocks remain near the summit per SummitPost.

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. A climbers' guide describes a hike from Freezeout Pass; no agency access rules were read

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Relatively easy class 1 trail from Freezeout Pass, roughly 5 miles round trip, per a climbers' guide

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor tower erected 1938, with a log cabinThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1913
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lolo and St. Joe National Forests
Land
Federal land
Location
Mineral/ Shoshone (ID) County, Montana
Coordinates
47.02642, −115.07148
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-illinois-peak

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 3.9 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. 1913 BuiltLog cabin about half a mile south on the divide and a pole platform at the summit (firelookout.com)Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1915 First staffedLookout station to be established on the peak; Calvin MacDonald to be left in charge (Mineral Independent, July 15, 1915)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1915 and 1934
  4. 1934 StaffedCalvin MacDonald named as lookout manSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 BuiltSteel Aermotor tower erected; materials packed in by pack mules; 60 ft per firelookout.com, about 72 ft per the Montana pageSources: montanalookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  6. 1943 StaffedCharles Kern, 17, lookout on a 60-foot steel towerSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1947 StaffedLeeland Spencer stationed as a lookoutSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1947 and 1974
  9. 1974 RemovedTower dismantled and removed by pack animals; a helicopter was judged too expensiveSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1976 Removedfirelookout.com gives gone 1976; conflicts with the 1974 dismantling dateSource: firelookout.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.

Illinois Peak straddles the Montana-Idaho line, in Mineral County, Montana, and Shoshone County, Idaho.1,2 It also sits where the Lolo and St. Joe national forests meet.2

In July 1915 the Mineral Independent reported that Forester Phillips had gone to the head of Cedar Creek with a government pack train to set up a lookout station on the peak. Calvin MacDonald would be left in charge.3 Firelookout.com instead dates the first structures to 1913: a log cabin about half a mile south on the divide and a pole platform at the summit.1

A steel Aermotor tower went up in 1938, its materials packed in by mule.1,3 The Montana page describes it as about 72 feet tall.3 Firelookout.com and a 1943 newspaper item quoted on the Montana page both give 60 feet.1,3

Newspaper notices from 1934 to 1947 name a few men at the peak. Calvin MacDonald was the lookout man in 1934, and a 1935 item had Bud LaCombe down from it. Charles Kern, 17, was a lookout there in 1943, and Leeland Spencer was stationed as a lookout in 1947.3

In 1974 the tower was taken apart, and pack animals carried it off the peak. A helicopter was judged too costly.3 Firelookout.com lists the site as gone in 1976.1

A climbers' guide says only foundation blocks remain near the summit, where a fire lookout once stood.2 The same guide describes a relatively easy class 1 trail from Freezeout Pass, a round trip of roughly five miles.2 No agency source we read describes the site today, including whether visitors may go there.

  1. Illinois Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/illinois.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Illinois Peak, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/illinois-peak/153826 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Illinois Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts Montana, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/illinois-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.