Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana
Mount Thompson-Seton
L-4 cabin on Mount Thompson-Seton in the Flathead National Forest, built in 1931; abandoned in the 1950s, ruins reported in 1984, and listed as gone.
- Gone
- Open to the public
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in the 1950s; ruins were reported in 1984. The trail listing names remnants of an old fire lookout but does not say they are the cabin site. No source we read describes the cabin site today.
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. Listed as a National Forest trail for hiking. No source we read says whether the cabin site itself is open.
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- 12.2-mile National Forest trail of high difficulty; begins at Whale Creek roads 318 and 1674
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1931
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Flathead National Forest
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Flathead County, Montana
- Coordinates
- 48.87037, −114.65169
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mt-mount-thompson-seton
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 4.2 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 BuiltL-4 cab, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
- No record between 1931 and 1984
- 1984 EventRuins reported at the site in 1984Source: firelookout.com
- Date unknown AbandonedAbandoned in the 1950s, per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.
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 Thompson-Seton stands at 7,820 feet in the Flathead National Forest, about 18 miles northwest of Polebridge.1 The site dates its cabin to 1931 and calls it an L-4 cab.1 The Forest Association's list classes the site as a ground structure rather than a tower.2
After the 1910 fire season, the Forest Service began placing fire-watch stations on high summits.3 The Forest kept putting up more lookouts, the 1930s especially, and by 1939 it counted 147 lookouts and towers.3
The site says the cabin was abandoned in the 1950s and that ruins were reported there in 1984.1 The Forest Association's list marks the site simply as gone, and neither source says when the ruins disappeared.1,2
A travel listing for the Mount Thompson-Seton Trail describes a 12.2-mile National Forest trail of high difficulty.4 It names remnants of an old fire lookout among the trail's special attractions.4 The trail begins at Whale Creek roads 318 and 1674.4 The listing does not say whether those remnants are the cabin site, and no source we read describes the cabin site now or whether it is open to visitors.
- Thompson-Seton Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/thompsonseton.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Trails of the Past: Historical Overview of the Flathead National Forest, Montana, 1800-1960, Chapter 9, npshistory.com, https://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/1/flathead/history/chap9.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Mt.Thompson - Seton Trail in Hungry Horse Montana, Travelmt.com, http://www.travelmt.com/mt_sites_4819_Mt.Thompson+-+Seton+Trail.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
- Trails of the Past: Historical Overview of the Flathead National Forest, Montana, 1800-1960, Chapter 9 (npshistory.com) (opens another site)
- Mt.Thompson - Seton Trail in Hungry Horse Montana (Travelmt.com) (opens another site)
- FFLA Montana lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Mt. Thompson-Seton 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.