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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Mount Marston Lookout

1932 L-4 lookout on Mount Marston in Lincoln County, Montana; 1962 R-6 cab on a concrete base; threatened by the 2015 Marston Fire; NHLR-registered 2021.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

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

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 flat cab on a 10 ft concrete base (built 1962); earlier L-4 cab (1932)The designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1932
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
7,321 ft (2,231 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.76451, −114.79004
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-mount-marston

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 4.3 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. 1932 Builtsite developed with an L-4 cabSources: nhlr.org, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1962
  3. 1962 Rebuiltpresent 10 ft concrete base topped by an R-6 flat cabSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1970 Eventvandalized in November 1970; locks broken off doors (Daily Inter Lake)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1970 and 2015
  6. 2015 Firelightning-caused Marston Fire grew to 1,500 to 1,800 acres by August 15; notice said the lookout was still in dangerSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout Registerregistered January 9, 2021 as US 1502, MT 80Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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.

Mount Marston sits in the Kootenai National Forest in Lincoln County, Montana, about five miles east of Fortine.1,2,3 The Register says the U.S. Forest Service administers it.3

The site got an L-4 cab in 1932.3,2 The present tower, a 10-foot concrete base carrying an R-6 flat cab, was built in 1962, according to the Register and firelookout.com.3,1,2

The sources give three different elevations: 7,321 feet in the Register, 7,343 feet on firelookout.com, and 7,330 feet in a 1960 survey station note quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.3,1,2

In November 1970 the Daily Inter Lake reported that the lookout had been vandalized, with locks broken off its doors.2 The ranger quoted in that notice said valuables were taken out at the end of each fire season, and that the doors were locked only against weather.2 The notice added that access was thought to have been by snowmobile.2

In August 2015 lightning caused the Marston Fire.2 By August 15 it had grown to between 1,500 and 1,800 acres, and a notice warned that the flames could still overrun the lookout.2 An earlier notice said the lookout had already been wrapped before the fire spread.2

The Register registered the lookout as US 1502, MT 80 on January 9, 2021.3 Both the Register and firelookout.com describe it as staffed in summer, but neither dates that staffing.3,1 The sources do not say whether the tower came through the 2015 fire unharmed, though the 2021 registration and present-tense descriptions suggest it did.3,1

None of the sources mentions rental use or public access rules, so check with the Kootenai National Forest before planning a visit.

  1. Mt. Marston Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/marston.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Mount Marston - Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/mount-marston.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Mount Marston Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/mount-marston-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Mount Marston Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Mt. Marston in 1979
Mt. Marston in 1979 (1979)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source

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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, dates, 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, 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.