FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Teton County, Montana

Mount Wright

Lewis and Clark NF summit lookout built in 1933, abandoned in the 1950s and now gone; sources disagree on its type and the summit elevation.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Abandoned in the 1950s per firelookout.com; the Forest Fire Lookout Association list shows Tower Gone

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. Hiking trail #160 climbs to the summit on Lewis and Clark National Forest land; the hiking guide describes a radio tower and small building at the top but does not say whether either is the lookout

Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Trail from the North Fork Teton Canyon road; free parking at the trailhead

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lewis and Clark National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Teton County, Montana
Coordinates
47.97820, −112.84797
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-mount-wright

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

  1. 1920 EventFirelookout.com says a camp stood on the site in the 1920s; decade onlySource: firelookout.com
  2. 1931 FireLightning fire discovered by guards stationed at the Wrong Creek and Mt. Wright lookoutsSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1933 BuiltBuilt in 1933 as a glass lookout per the 1933 papers; a December notice calls it a new lookout houseSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1935 StaffedElmer Allum assigned to Mt. WrightSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 StaffedHouston Bosseler named as Mt. Wright lookout firemanSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 StaffedKenneth Baldwin stationed on Mt. WrightSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1940 StaffedLorman Bruno assigned to Mt. WrightSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1943 FireBill Breen, acting as lookout, extinguished a lightning fire in timber on Mount WrightSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1945 StaffedWilliam C. Grater stationed on Mt. WrightSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1950 AbandonedAbandoned in the 1950s; decade onlySource: firelookout.com
  11. 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.

Mount Wright is a peak in Teton County, about 33 miles west-northwest of Choteau, in the Lewis and Clark National Forest.1,2 A 1940 Coast and Geodetic Survey description places the lookout on the northern and highest peak of the mountain.2 Firelookout.com gives the elevation as 8,855 feet, while an October 1933 Choteau paper gives 8,865 feet above sea level.1,2

Crews were sent to the Teton in September 1933 to build a glass lookout on top of the mountain.2 By October 19, 1933, the first project to be completed was that lookout, and a December notice called it a new lookout house.2 Firelookout.com instead calls the 1930s structure an L-4 tower.1 The sources disagree about the type of structure, and this story reports both accounts.2,1

Firelookout.com dates a camp on the site to the 1920s.1 A September 1931 lightning fire was spotted by guards posted at the Wrong Creek and Mt. Wright lookouts, so a watch post was in use on the mountain before the 1933 work.2

Newspaper notices quoted on the Montana lookouts page name the men assigned to the summit through the 1930s and 1940s.2 Elmer Allum was assigned in 1935, Houston Bosseler in 1938, Kenneth Baldwin in 1939, and Lorman Bruno in 1940.2 In 1943 Bill Breen, a Teton high school youth working as a lookout, put out a lightning fire in the timber on the mountain.2 In 1945 William C. Grater, a Forest School student from Montana State University, was stationed there.2

Firelookout.com says the lookout was abandoned in the 1950s and is now gone.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list also marks the site Tower Gone.3

A hiking guide describes Mount Wright Hiker Trail #160 as a route from the North Fork Teton Canyon road to the top of the mountain.4 The same guide notes free parking at the trailhead.4 It also describes a radio tower and a small building at the top, but it does not say whether either is the old lookout.4

  1. Wright Mtn. (Mt. Wright) Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/wrightmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Mount Wright - Forest Lookouts, montanalookouts.weebly.com, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/mount-wright.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Mount Wright Hiker Trail #160, Hiking Project, https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7072855/mount-wright-hiker-trail-160 (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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: agency, ownership, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.