FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Jocko #2 Lookout

Also known as Jocko

Standing 40-ft R-6 timber lookout on Confederated Salish and Kootenai land near Arlee, Montana, built 1969 and now staffed only in emergencies.

Tribal land: permission required

This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On the Flathead Reservation. Ask the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes before visiting.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Tribal land: permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Staffed only in emergencies

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower40-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab; R-6 cabs are a standard 15x15-ft frame house (CSKT)The design: R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1969
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
7,636 ft (2,328 m)
Agency
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe
Land
Tribal land
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
47.14158, −113.82880
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-jocko-2-2

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.

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. 1969 BuiltNHLR and firelookout.com: 40-ft treated timber tower with R-6 flat cab. CSKT page says built about 1970.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, fwrconline.csktnrd.org
  2. No record between 1969 and 2022
  3. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 12, 2022 as US 1543, MT 106; nominated by Kyle Stetler.Source: nhlr.org
  4. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Jocko #2 Lookout stands on the Flathead Indian Reservation, on land the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes administer, about 12 miles east of Arlee.1,2,3 Sources disagree on the county: the register and firelookout.com place it in Missoula County, while the tribal lookouts page puts it in Lake County.1,2,3

The National Historic Lookout Register and firelookout.com both date the tower to 1969.1,2 The register describes a 40-foot treated timber tower with an R-6 flat cab, and firelookout.com a 40-foot wooden R-6 tower.1,2 The tribal lookouts page says it was built about 1970, and that R-6 lookouts use a standard 15-by-15-foot frame house.3

A separate lookout also carries the name Jocko #2. It was a 60-foot steel tower built in 1934 in the Flathead National Forest. It was removed, possibly in the mid-1960s, and only its concrete footings remain.4

The tribal page says the tower is now staffed only during emergencies, though it gives no date for that change.3

The register lists the tower as US 1543, MT 106, registered April 12, 2022, and gives its elevation as 7,636 feet (2,327 meters). The other two sources list 7,769 feet.1,2,3

The register names the tribes as administrator, but the pages read do not describe how visitors reach the tower or whether entry needs permission. Anyone planning a trip should contact the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes first.1,3

  1. Jocko #2 Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/jocko-2-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Jocko #2 Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/jocko2.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Fire Lookouts, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation, https://fwrconline.csktnrd.org/Fire/FireOnTheLand/FireManagement/Lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Jocko #2 Lookout, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/mt/jocko-2-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Jocko #2 Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, 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: 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. Fire Lookouts on the Flathead Reservation (CSKT Fire on the Land) Gave us: design, ownership, access, staffing, links Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes · No licence stated; facts only. Coordinates are geocoded (OSM Nominatim) or dead-reckoned -- see extra.coord_method per record. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. 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
  7. 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.