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Fire lookout · Sanders County, Montana

Richards Peak Lookout

Richards Peak Lookout, Lolo National Forest: a 1960 R-6 cab on a 10-foot base, staffed by the state; the Register dates the first cupola to 1925, newspapers to 1918.

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
Staffing
Staffed during fire season

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Two-story buildingR-6 flattop cab with catwalk on a 10-foot concrete block baseThe designs: R-6, D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1925
Height
10 ft (3.0 m)
Elevation
5,771 ft (1,759 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Lolo National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Sanders County, Montana
Coordinates
47.83361, −115.06222
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-richards-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 4.3 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. 1918 StaffedDenver Laughlin spent the summer as lookout on Richards Peak, per the Sanders County Independent-Ledger; earlier than the Register's 1925 dateSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1925 BuiltFirst lookout on the site was a cupola cabin (D-6 cupola per the Register)Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  3. No record between 1925 and 1960
  4. 1960 BuiltCurrent R-6 flat cab on a 10-foot concrete baseSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  5. No record between 1960 and 2009
  6. 2009 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 24, 2009; nominated by Gary WeberSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Richards Peak Lookout sits at 5,771 feet in the Lolo National Forest, in Sanders County, about 21 miles northeast of Thompson Falls.1,2

The Register and firelookout.com both date the first lookout on the peak to 1925, when a cupola cabin was set up there.1,2 Newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts site put a lookout here earlier.3 In 1918 Denver Laughlin spent the summer as lookout on Richards Peak, and the 1919 and 1920 items show him back in the same post.3 A 1931 item says he had been there nearly 15 years.3 The Register also says the peak was named for a man called Richards, its first lookout, who was killed in action in France in World War I.1 The newspaper items I read do not name him, so the sources disagree about who staffed the peak first.

The present cab, an R-6 flattop with a catwalk on a concrete block base, dates from 1960.1,2 The Register accepted the lookout on April 24, 2009, on the nomination of Gary Weber.1

Both sources say the state staffs it now. The Register says it is staffed by the state, and firelookout.com names the Montana DNRC.1,2 Neither source dates that statement.1,2 The sources I read do not say whether visitors may climb or drive to the lookout, so check with the Lolo National Forest or the Montana DNRC before planning a visit.

  1. Richards Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/richards-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Richards Peak Lookout, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/richardspk.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Richards Peak, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/richards-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Richards Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Richards Peak in 1949
Richards Peak in 1949 (1949)Photo: Pete Molenda and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source
Richards Peak L.O.
Richards Peak L.OPhoto: Pete Molenda and Gary Weber, via firelookout.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) 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
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists 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
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, height, 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
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, staffing, 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.