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Fire lookout · Beaverhead County, Montana

Odell Mountain

Beaverhead County, MT lookout on Odell Mountain: camp by 1916, wooden L-4 tower in the 1930s, staffed to 1963, destroyed 1976 per one source; no source describes the summit today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1976 per firelookout.com; no source describes what stands at the summit today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

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

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerWooden L-4 tower in the 1930s; 18-foot steel live-in dated 1954 per firelookout.comThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Beaverhead National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Beaverhead County, Montana
Coordinates
45.57733, −113.25672
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-odell-mountain

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 3.3 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. 1916 EventCamp at the site per firelookout.com; a Dillon paper mentions the Odell Lookout station in August 1916 (August 18, 1916)Sources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1916 and 1934
  3. 1934 EventAnother line being strung from the O'Dell lookout to Wisdom, in a June 7, 1934 Dillon item about new telephone constructionSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1936 StaffedJohn Bailey appointed to the O'Dell lookout (June 17, 1936)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1944 StaffedHenry Tiel of Roundup is the lookout (July 26, 1944)Sources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1953 StaffedPete Haldron, Syracuse forestry student, is the lookout (July 16, 1953)Sources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1954 AlteredWork to raise the lookout about 30 feet and build a cabin (Dillon paper, September 15, 1954); firelookout.com describes an 18-foot steel live-inSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1957 EventF.M. radio repeater installed on the lookout to improve radio communication between Wise River, Wisdom and Jackson (Dillon, August 6, 1957)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1963 StaffedForest Service lookout men installed at Bender and O'Dell lookouts (July 10, 1963)Source: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1976 DestroyedDestroyed per firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  11. No record between 1976 and 2016
  12. 2016 EventForest Service trail decision signed June 23, 2016: reroute and reconstruct about half a mile of Trail #3010 to the lookoutSource: fs.usda.gov
  13. 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.

The Odell Mountain lookout stood on Odell Mountain in Beaverhead County, nine miles east-southeast of Wisdom, on the Beaverhead National Forest. The site sits at 9,405 feet.1,2

A camp was there by 1916.2 Firelookout.com lists a camp that year, and a Dillon paper of August 1916 mentions a visit to the Odell Lookout station.2,3

Firelookout.com describes a wooden L-4 tower in the 1930s.2 A June 1934 Dillon item about new telephone construction reports that another line was being strung from the O'Dell lookout to Wisdom.3

Dillon newspaper items from 1936 to 1963 report people posted there in several summers.3 John Bailey was appointed in 1936.3 Henry Tiel of Roundup was the lookout in 1944, and in 1953 Pete Haldron, a forestry student at Syracuse University, held the post.2,3 In 1963 Forest Service lookout men were installed at Bender and O'Dell lookouts.3

In September 1954 a Dillon paper said work on the lookout had started a year earlier. The plan was to heighten it by about 30 feet for better visibility and to add a cabin.3 Firelookout.com instead describes an 18-foot steel live-in dated 1954.2 The two accounts do not match. In 1957 a Beaverhead Forest radio technician installed an F.M. repeater on the lookout to improve radio contact between Wise River, Wisdom and Jackson.3

Firelookout.com says the lookout was destroyed in 1976.2

A Forest Service decision signed June 23, 2016 covers rerouting and rebuilding about half a mile of non-motorized Trail #3010 to the Odell Mountain Lookout.4 We found no source that describes what stands at the summit today.

  1. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Odell Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Fire Lookout (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/mt/odellmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Odell Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), quoting Dillon newspapers, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/odell-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. O'Dell Lookout Trail Reconstruction, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/beaverhead-deerlodge/projects/49401 (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, 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.