Fire lookout · Mineral County, Montana
Mount Bushnell
Gabled L-4 cab built 1931 on the Sanders/Mineral county line near Thompson Falls, destroyed in 1958; a 2021 hike story says the old lookout's base remains at the summit.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1958; a 2021 Sanders County Ledger hiking story says the base of the old lookout is still at the top of the peak
Visit & stay
Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.
Access
Open to the public. A 2021 Ledger hiking story describes a hike to the summit; Forest Lookouts lists the site under the Lolo National Forest
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Summit hike near Thompson Falls, described in a 2021 Ledger story; the old lookout's base is at the top
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabGabled L-4 cab, built 1931The design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1931
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Lolo National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Mineral County, Montana
- Coordinates
- 47.48378, −115.37044
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mt-mount-bushnell
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 a typical height for a lookout like it.
Downloads about 3.8 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
- 1931 BuiltGabled L-4 cabSources: scledger.net, firelookout.com
- No record between 1931 and 1958
- 1958 DestroyedDestroyed in 1958Sources: scledger.net, firelookout.com
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Mount Bushnell, once called Lookout Peak, sits about eight miles south of Thompson Falls, on the Sanders and Mineral county line.1,2 A gabled L-4 cab went up there in 1931.1,2 Among live-in designs, the L-4 cab was by far the most popular, a wood frame cab with windows on every side.2
The lookout was destroyed in 1958.1,2 The Sanders County Ledger and Forest Lookouts agree on both dates.2,1
Today, a 2021 Sanders County Ledger hiking story says the base of the old lookout still sits at the top of the peak.3 The same story describes a hike to Mount Bushnell, and Forest Lookouts places the site under the Lolo National Forest.3,1 No source we read describes a standing structure there.
- Mt. Bushnell (Lookout Peak) Fire Lookout Cabin, Forest Lookouts, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/bushnell.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Lookouts in Sanders County, Sanders County Ledger, https://scledger.net/story/2021/08/19/communities/remember-when/6635.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Colors of fall, Sanders County Ledger, https://scledger.net/story/2021/09/30/communities/colors-of-fall/6844.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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
- Lookouts in Sanders County (Sanders County Ledger) (opens another site)
- Colors of fall (Sanders County Ledger) (opens another site)
- FFLA Montana lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Mt. Bushnell on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.