Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana
Priscilla Peak Lookout
1929 L-2 cupola cabin on Priscilla Peak, Lolo National Forest, Montana; rental program withdrawn; 2020 move-to-Driveway-Peak plan cancelled.
- 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.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Trail
- Trailhead not clearly signed, per NHLR visit report; no NHLR sign posted at the trailhead or on the directions.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Ground-level cabL-2 cupola cabin with shake walls and gable roof (a cabin, not a tower)The design: L-2 house
- Built of
- WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1929
- Height
- 300 ft (91.4 m)
- Elevation
- 7,005 ft (2,135 m)
- Agency
- U.S. Forest Service
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Sanders County, Montana
- Coordinates
- 47.68778, −115.16000
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-mt-priscilla-peak
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 4.2 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
- 1929 BuiltNHLR build yearSource: nhlr.org
- 1930 StaffedSanders County Independent-Ledger item of July 2, 1930 names a lookout-fireman on the peakSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- 1940 StaffedSanders County Independent-Ledger item of August 7, 1940: a lookout sent up for a weekSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- 1954 EventStorm report of September 16, 1954: hail broke every window in the stationSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- 1954 StaffedSanders County Independent Ledger item of July 8, 1954: someone posted at the lookoutSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
- 1955 Staffedfirelookout.com lists a lookout at the cabin in 1955 among its known lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
- No record between 1955 and 1970
- 1970 Staffedfirelookout.com says the cabin was used for emergencies into the 1970sSource: firelookout.com
- No record between 1970 and 1994
- 1994 Opened as a rentalRestored and placed on the lookout rental program in 1994Source: nhlr.org
- 2006 Condition assessmentNHLR visit report of July 8, 2006: packrat damage to floor, door left open, several shutters ripped off by wind; appears out of the rental programSource: nhlr.org
- 2006 EventWithdrawn from the rental program for lack of use at a date not given, after 1994; the July 8, 2006 visit report says it appears to be out of the programSource: nhlr.org
- 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2009Source: nhlr.org
- 2020 EventForest Service project to move the cabin to Driveway Peak and open it as a rental: scoping began 05/01/2020; project listed as Cancelled, last updated 6/17/2020Source: fs.usda.gov
- 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.
Priscilla Peak lookout is a cabin rather than a tower.1 It stands about 11 miles northeast of Thompson Falls, in Sanders County, Montana.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register describes it as an L-2 cupola cabin with shake walls and a gable roof, built in 1929 in the Lolo National Forest, and counts it as one of three cabins of that style left in the North Region.1
Newspaper clippings reprinted by the Forest Lookouts site show someone posted on the peak in 1930, 1940 and 1954.3 A 1954 storm report says hail broke every window in the station.3 A lookout history page lists a lookout there in 1955 and says the cabin was used for emergencies into the 1970s.2 The sources do not name any fire it watched.
The Register says the cabin was refurbished and added to the rental program in 1994, then dropped from it later because of little use.1 A 2006 visit report found that it appeared to be out of the program, with packrats chewing holes through the floor and the door left open after the last visitors.1 The Register records its registration on April 24, 2009.1
In 2020 the Forest Service proposed taking the cabin apart, restoring it and moving it to Driveway Peak, where it would be opened as a rental.4,5 The Forest Service project page lists the plan as cancelled and was last updated on June 17, 2020.4 A May 2020 Sanders County Ledger article described the cabin as having fallen into disrepair where it stood.5
The sources do not say whether the cabin can be visited or rented today. The Register notes that the trailhead is not clearly signed.1 Anyone planning a visit should check with the Lolo National Forest before setting out.
- Priscilla Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/priscilla-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Priscilla Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/priscillapeak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Priscilla Peak - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/priscilla-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Priscilla Lookout to Driveway Peak, Lolo National Forest project summary (#58117), USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/lolo/projects/58117 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- John Hamilton, "A Tale of Two Peaks," Sanders County Ledger, May 14, 2020, https://www.scledger.net/story/2020/05/14/news/a-tale-of-two-peaks/4578.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, what it is built of, 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: 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) Gave us: height, 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, 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 794 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Priscilla Lookout to Driveway Peak (project #58117) (USDA Forest Service, Lolo National Forest) (opens another site)
- A Tale of Two Peaks (Sanders County Ledger) (opens another site)
- FFLA Montana lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Priscilla Peak on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Priscilla Peak on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.