FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Keeler Mountain Lookout

Kootenai NF lookout near Troy, MT: 1924 platform tower and cabin (cabin still stands), 1934 pole tower, 1963 53-ft R-6 tower; access closed for grizzly habitat, 2026 reactivation assessment.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. The access road and area are closed to protect grizzly bear habitat; the closure was still in place in the 2026 condition assessment.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Access closed for grizzly bear habitat; firelookout.com says the tower is available for emergencies
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2026)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerTreated-timber 53-ft R-6 tower with flat cab (1963), third lookout on the site; earlier 1934 50-ft L-4 pole tower and 1924 50-ft platform tower with cabinThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Wood
Built
1924
Height
53 ft (16.2 m)
Elevation
3,783 ft (1,153 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.32036, −115.89472 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-keeler-mountain

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 4.0 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. 1924 BuiltFirst structures: a 50-ft platform tower and a log cabin; the cabin still standsSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1924 EventFirst structures on the site: a 50-ft platform tower and a log cabin (the cabin still stands).Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  3. 1934 Replaced by a new structureA 50-ft pole tower with an L-4 cab followed; its foundation stones remainSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1934 and 1963
  5. 1963 BuiltPresent 53-ft treated-timber R-6 tower, the third lookout on the siteSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, nwmt-ffla.org
  6. 1963 Replaced by a new structureThe present 53-ft treated-lumber R-6 tower, the third lookout on the site.Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  7. No record between 1963 and 2015
  8. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered per NHLR detail page: August 30, 2015Source: nhlr.org
  9. 2026 Condition assessmentCondition assessment with the Forest Service ahead of the 2026 fire season; exploring reactivation as a staffed fire lookout; upgrading lightning protection is a top priority for the Forest Service and volunteersSource: nwmt-ffla.org
  10. 2026 ClosedAccess to the area currently closed off to protect grizzly bear habitat (start date not stated)Sources: firelookout.com, 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Keeler Mountain sits in Lincoln County, Montana, on the Kootenai National Forest, roughly ten miles south of Troy.1,2,3 The first lookout here went up in 1924: a 50-foot platform tower with a log cabin, and the cabin still stands.1,2 A 50-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab followed in 1934, and its foundation stones remain.1,2

The tower standing now is 53 feet tall, built of treated timber, and dates to 1963. It is the third lookout on the site.1,2,3

Firelookout.com says the 1963 tower is available for emergencies, which suggests it is not in regular use as a lookout.2 The lookout joined the National Historic Lookout Register on August 30, 2015.1

The most recent work is a 2026 condition assessment.3 Ahead of the fire season, volunteers teamed up with the Forest Service to assess the structure's condition and explore the possibility of reactivating it as a staffed fire lookout.3 Both the Forest Service and the volunteers named lightning protection upgrades a top priority.3

Visitors should not plan to reach it. The access road is closed to protect grizzly bear habitat, and the closure remained in place in 2026.2,3 The site is on the National Historic Lookout Register, but while the area is closed, visitors should stay out.1,3

  1. Keeler Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/keeler-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Keeler Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/keelermtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. 2026 Projects, Northwest Montana Lookout Association, https://nwmt-ffla.org/2026/03/07/2026-projects/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Keeler Mountain Lookout
Photo: Gary Weber, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Keeler Mtn. in 1948
Keeler Mtn. in 1948 (1948)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Dave Masters, via firelookout.com · source
Keeler Mtn. L.O.
Keeler Mtn. L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Dave Masters, via firelookout.com · source
Keeler Mtn. in 2021
Keeler Mtn. in 2021 (2021)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, Gary Weber, and Dave Masters, via firelookout.com · 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 location by 31 km (19 mi).

    • FFLA: 48.32036, −115.89472
    • NHLR: 48.19125, −115.53071
    • Northwest Montana Lookout Association: 48.19125, −115.53071

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from FFLA.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, 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: location, 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: design, height, 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: staffing, 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. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.