Fire lookout · Blaine County, Montana
Monument Peak (Mission Ridge) Lookout
Also known as Monument Peak
1934 cupola-based lookout on Fort Belknap land in Blaine County, planned as part of a CCC project; NHLR-registered 2022; firelookout.com says abandoned but still there.
- Standing
- Tribal land: permission required
- Verified
Tribal land: permission required
This site is on tribal land. Ask the tribe for permission before visiting, and follow its rules. On tribal land. Ask the tribe 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
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabwooden cupola cabin (cupola-based lookout)The design: Cupola house
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1934
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 5,239 ft (1,597 m)
- Agency
- Fort Belknap Tribe
- Land
- Tribal land
- Location
- Blaine County, Montana
- Coordinates
- 47.99295, −108.59646 sources disagree
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mt-monument-peak-mission-ridge
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 4.4 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
- 1934 BuiltNHLR and firelookout.com give 1934 (firelookout.com with a question mark); NHLR description says built sometime in the early 1930s; a May 31, 1934 newspaper item describes it as planned under a CCC projectSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1934 and 2022
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered April 13, 2022 as US 1554, MT 111; nominated by Kyle StetlerSource: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The National Historic Lookout Register lists this lookout as Monument Peak (Mission Ridge) Lookout.1 It sits on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Blaine County, Montana, about five miles east of Hays.2,3 The Register gives its elevation as 5,239 feet, while firelookout.com gives 5,280 feet.1,2
A May 31, 1934 item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, reports that J.S. Allen, the Civilian Conservation Corps director at Hays, planned two lookout towers in the Little Rockies, one of them on Monument Peak.3 The same plan called for a telephone line from the Hays camp to the tower, and for roads up the gulches to help firefighters and to reach saw timber and wood.3
The Register dates the lookout to 1934 in its build field, but its description says only that it went up sometime in the early 1930s.1 Firelookout.com also gives 1934, though it puts a question mark after the year.2 Both sources describe a cupola-based lookout, and firelookout.com calls it a wooden cupola cabin.1,2
Firelookout.com says the cabin is abandoned but still there.2 The sources read say nothing about who staffed it or what fires it watched.
The Register says the Fort Belknap Tribe administers the site. It was accepted on April 13, 2022, as US 1554, MT 111, after a nomination by Kyle Stetler.1 The sources read do not describe any public access, so anyone interested should contact the Fort Belknap Tribe first.1
- Monument Peak (Mission Ridge) Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/monument-peak-mission-ridge-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Monument Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/monumentpk2.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Monument Peak, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/monument-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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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 2.1 km (1.3 mi).
- NHLR: 47.99295, −108.59646
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites): 48.00820, −108.61320
The map uses the position from NHLR.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, access, 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1554 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLA Montana lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Monument Peak on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Monument Peak on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.