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Fire lookout · Missoula County, Montana

Miller Peak

Lolo NF lookout near Missoula built 1931 (firelookout.com says about 1932); occupied 1934-37; cabin burned in 1937 Miller Creek fire; dismantled 1947; listed Tower Gone.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Dismantled after 1947; the Forest Fire Lookout Association list marks the tower Gone.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4The design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1931
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Lolo National Forest)
Land
Unknown
Location
Missoula County, Montana
Coordinates
46.75741, −113.88716
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-miller-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 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. 1930 EventWork started on a new lookout building; planned as a 20-foot tower with 14 by 14 foot living quarters.Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1931 BuiltNewspaper says the building was accomplished by May 1931; a 1947 report also gives 1931. firelookout.com says about 1932.Sources: montanalookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  3. 1934 StaffedC. B. Pitts occupied the lookout in May; Stewart Griffiths occupied it in July.Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1937 BurnedPhillips's cabin burned per a 1937 newspaper; the wooden tower resisted the flames.Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1937 FireMiller Creek fire reached the peak in July; two men died.Sources: oldmissoula.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1937 StaffedLewis Phillips, a forest school student, was employed as a lookout.Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1947 RemovedLookout being dismantled after 16 years of service, per a September 1947 newspaper report.Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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.

Miller Peak is a 7,018-foot summit in the Lolo National Forest, roughly nine to ten miles southeast of Missoula.1,2 A 1947 newspaper report says the peak had been in the Bitter Root forest when the lookout was built, and was by then part of the Lolo.2

Work on a new lookout began in September 1930, when two men were sent up to begin building it. The plan called for a 20-foot tower and 14-by-14-foot living quarters.2 A May 1931 report said the building was finished, and the 1947 report gives 1931 as the build year.2 The firelookout.com entry instead dates a log cabin on the site to 1929, and the L-4 tower on a 20-foot pole to about 1932.1 The sources differ by about a year, and the May 1931 newspaper report is the closest contemporary record.1,2

The lookout was staffed in 1934. C. B. Pitts was posted there in May, and a July notice had Stewart Griffiths at it, placing the lookout southwest of Missoula rather than southeast.1,2 Lewis Phillips, a forest school student, was employed as a lookout in 1937.2

In July 1937 a fire that swept up from Miller Creek reached the peak, and two men died in it.2,3 Phillips kept watch from the tower while his cabin burned.2 A 1937 newspaper account said the wooden tower was still holding out against the fire, and that it rose from a heap of rocks next to the cabin.2 A 1947 report instead says the fire halted 50 feet short of the structure and tower, which were nearly burned.2 A separate Old Missoula account says the tower survived by an odd stroke of luck.3

In September 1947 a newspaper reported that the lookout was being taken apart after 16 years in service.2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list marks the tower Gone.4

No source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Miller Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/millerpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Miller Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, montanalookouts.weebly.com, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/miller-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. "Big Smoke" - 2 Killed in Miller Creek Forest Fire - 1937, Old Missoula, https://oldmissoula.com/qbig-smokeq-2-killed-on-miller-creek-fire-1937/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Montana Lookouts (Alphabetical List), Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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.