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Fire lookout · Ravalli County, Montana

Lookout Mountain Lookout

R-6 cab built 1969 at Antrim Point, moved to this Bitterroot NF ridge in 1974 onto a concrete base; staffed in fire season per NHLR and in summer per firelookout.com.

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. described as a staffed working lookout; sources read give no public rental or visiting arrangement

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 flattop cab with catwalk on a 10-foot concrete base (one source says cinder block)The design: R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1969
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
7,830 ft (2,387 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Bitterroot National Forest (West Fork Ranger District cooperator)
Land
Federal land
Location
Ravalli County, Montana
Coordinates
45.63472, −114.25778
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-lookout-mountain-3

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 3.7 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 Builtcab built 1969 per NHLR and firelookout.com; first placed at Antrim PointSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1974 MovedR-6 cab moved from Antrim Point to this ridge and placed on a baseSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1974 and 2009
  4. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered on the National Historic Lookout Register April 24, 2009 as US 791, MT 48; nominated by Gary WeberSource: nhlr.org
  5. 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.

Lookout Mountain Lookout is a fire lookout on the Bitterroot National Forest in Ravalli County, Montana, at about 7,830 feet.1,2 The U.S. Forest Service administers it, and its cab looks down on the upper West Fork of the Bitterroot River.1

The cab is an R-6 flattop with a catwalk.1 The Register and firelookout.com describe a 10-foot concrete base,1,2 but the Forest Lookouts site calls it a cinder block base.3

Both the Register and firelookout.com give 1969 as the year the cab was built.1,2 The cab did not start on this ridge, however. It first stood at Antrim Point, another site on the same forest, and was moved here in 1974.1,2,3,4 A firelookout.com page about Antrim Point says an R-6 cab replaced the older L-4 cab there in 1968, a year before the 1969 build date given elsewhere.1,2,4

The Register says the lookout is regularly staffed during the fire season,1 and firelookout.com says it is staffed in the summer.2 The sources read say nothing about which fires it watched or who staffed it in earlier decades.

The Antrim Point page says the cab still stands on this ridge.4 The Register accepted it on April 24, 2009, as US 791, MT 48, after a nomination by Gary Weber.1

Because it is staffed during fire season, check with the West Fork Ranger District before planning any visit.1 The sources read do not mention a public rental for it.

  1. Lookout Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/lookout-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Lookout Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/lookoutmtnb.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Lookout Mountain, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/lookout-mountain2.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Antrim Point Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://firelookout.com/mt/antrimpoint.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Lookout Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Lookout Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout Mtn. in 1979
Lookout Mtn. in 1979 (1979)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Lookout Mtn. L.O.
Lookout Mtn. L.OPhoto: the Fire Lookout Museum and Gary Weber, 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: what it is built of, 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. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.