Fire lookout · Lewis & Clark County, Montana
Patrol Mountain Lookout
R-6 flat cab built in 1962 on a Lewis and Clark forest peak after a 1923 camp; staffed in summer, reached by a 6-mile trail, registered 2022.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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. Staffed in summer and reached by a 6-mile trail. No source says whether visitors may go inside the cab.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Winding 6-mile trail from the valley, per a 2022 magazine account
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabR-6 flat cabThe design: R-6
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1962
- Height
- Unknown
- Elevation
- 7,930 ft (2,417 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Lewis & Clark County, Montana
- Coordinates
- 47.45012, −112.89296
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mt-patrol-mountain
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 4.1 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
- 1923 EventCamp established at the lookout siteSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- 1924 EventNewspaper reports new trails built to the Patrol Mountain lookoutSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- 1925 EventLog cabin built at the lookout siteSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
- 1928 StaffedNewspaper notice names a summer lookout on Patrol MountainSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1928 and 1962
- 1962 BuiltPresent R-6 flat cab built; the 2022 magazine calls it a U.S. Forest Service buildingSources: nhlr.org, csmonitor.com
- No record between 1962 and 2022
- 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 12, 2022 as US 1540, MT 103Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Patrol Mountain sits in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, about 23 miles west of Augusta, Montana.1 A camp went up at the lookout site in 1923, and a log cabin was built there in 1925.2,1 The lookout that stands today is an R-6 flat cab, a 1962 U.S. Forest Service building.2,3
A 1924 newspaper item reported new trails built to the Patrol Mountain lookout, and a 1928 notice names a person who worked as a lookout there during the summer.4 None of the sources I could open describes a particular fire the lookout helped spot.
The cab is manned during the summer.2 A 2022 magazine profile described a veteran lookout who had worked the post for 26 fire seasons.3 The National Historic Lookout Register added the site on April 12, 2022, as US 1540, MT 103.2
Getting there takes effort. Each fragile piece went up by mule on a 6-mile trail that winds from the valley.3 None of the sources I could open says whether visitors may go inside the cab, so check with the Forest Service before planning a trip.
- Patrol Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/patrolmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Patrol Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/patrol-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- On a Montana mountaintop, this lookout watches for fire – and hope, Christian Science Monitor, https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2022/0811/On-a-Montana-mountaintop-this-lookout-watches-for-fire-and-hope (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Patrol Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Montana Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/patrol-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- 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
- NHLR register entry US 1540 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- On a Montana mountaintop, this lookout watches for fire – and hope (Christian Science Monitor) (opens another site)
- FFLA Montana lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Patrol Mtn. on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Patrol Mountain on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 1200601799 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.