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Fire lookout · Powell County, Montana

Saddle Mountain Lookout

1942 30-foot L-4 pole tower on Saddle Mountain near Drummond, Powell County, Montana; DNRC-administered since 1971; NHLR-registered 2008; summer staffing.

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?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Old survey directions route the drive from Drummond through pole gates; the sources do not say whether the gates are open to the public.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower30' pole L-4 tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,783 ft (2,068 m)
Agency
Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation
Land
Unknown
Location
Powell County, Montana
Coordinates
46.69284, −113.02537
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-saddle-mountain-2

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 3.7 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. 1936 BuiltTree platform established in 1936 (Fire Lookout Museum); NHLR description also gives 1936 as the build yearSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  2. 1942 Built30-foot pole L-4 tower built in 1942 (Fire Lookout Museum); NHLR build field also gives 1942Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  3. 1954 StaffedPhilipsburg Mail item of September 17, 1954: kept by one woman that year, closed after more than two months openSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1956 StaffedMontana Standard item of July 8, 1956: maintained by a father and son teamSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1957 StaffedMontana Standard item of July 14, 1957: father and son team againSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1961 StaffedPhilipsburg Mail item of July 7, 1961: a woman stationed at the lookout after the lookout opened in JuneSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1965 StaffedMontana Standard-Post item of July 18, 1965: being manned that year by a woman from OvandoSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1971 EventTransferred to the Montana Department of Natural Resources (NHLR)Source: nhlr.org
  9. 1978 StaffedPhilipsburg Mail item of July 6, 1978: a husband and wife team manning the lookout that seasonSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1982 StaffedPhilipsburg Mail item of July 15, 1982: a couple manning the lookout that summerSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1982 and 2008
  12. 2008 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 16, 2008 as US 756, MT 43Source: nhlr.org
  13. 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.

Saddle Mountain lookout stands in Powell County, Montana, about six miles northeast of Drummond.1 The National Historic Lookout Register gives its elevation as 6,783 feet and its build year as 1942.2

The early dates differ between sources. The Register's description says a fire protection association built the lookout in 1936, but its own build field gives 1942.2 The Fire Lookout Museum listing says a tree platform went up in 1936 and the 30-foot pole L-4 tower was built in 1942.1 Read together, the 1936 date probably belongs to the platform and 1942 to the tower, but the Register does not say so.

A 1954 Philipsburg Mail item says the station, run by the Blackfoot Forest Protective Association, was kept by one woman that year and had been open for more than two months before it closed.3 Montana Standard clippings from 1956 and 1957 describe a father and son team sharing the duties.3 Later clips name a husband and wife team in 1978, and a couple again in 1982.3 The Fire Lookout Museum listing says the tower is staffed in the summer.1

The sources do not describe any fire the lookout spotted. The Register says the lookout was handed to the Montana Department of Natural Resources in 1971. It describes the lookout as the last survivor of the original 1930s pole L-4 cabs over 10 feet tall, still in use with no major changes.2

Old survey directions printed on the Forest Lookouts page start at the Drummond post office, head east on U.S. Highway 10, then run several miles on a route that passes through pole gates and includes a dim track.3 The directions may be out of date, and the sources do not say whether the public may go up the tower or whether the gates are open. Anyone planning a visit should check with the Anaconda Unit of the Montana DNRC first.2

  1. Saddle Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower (Saddle Mountain Lookout), firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/saddlemtn389b.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Saddle Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/saddle-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Saddle mountain - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts (montanalookouts.weebly.com), https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/saddle-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Saddle Mountain Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Saddle Mtn. in 1989
Saddle Mtn. in 1989 (1989)Photo: the Fire Lookout Museum, via firelookout.com · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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: 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, 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

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