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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Scenery Mountain Lookout Site

Lincoln County, MT summit lookout: L-4 cab built 1936, R-6 cab 1962; the Forest Service removed the cab in 2009 (FireLookout.com says 2010).

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed by the Forest Service in 2009 (FireLookout.com says 2010); no source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. Reached by National Forest Trail 649 from Cedar Creek Trail 141; motor vehicles not allowed. No source describes the old summit site or whether it is open to visitors.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Scenery Mountain Lookout Trail #649, 5.0 miles, light use, moderate difficulty; a July 2026 trail closure order covered the Scenery Mountain Trail network

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story buildingL-4 cab built 1936; replaced in 1962 by an R-6 cab on a 10-foot concrete baseThe designs: L-4, R-6
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1936
Height
Unknown
Elevation
6,876 ft (2,096 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.41642, −115.71695
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-scenery-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 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

  1. 1936 BuiltL-4 cab, the first structure on the siteSources: firelookout.com, firetower.org
  2. No record between 1936 and 1962
  3. 1962 Replaced by a new structureR-6 cab atop a 10-foot concrete base replaced the L-4 cabSource: firetower.org
  4. No record between 1962 and 2009
  5. 2009 RemovedForest Service removed the cab from its concrete block foundation, per the register and the 2009 chapter report; FireLookout.com says 2010Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.org, firelookout.com
  6. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register October 8, 2011Source: firetower.org
  7. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Scenery Mountain is in Lincoln County, Montana, in the Kootenai National Forest.1,2 The first structure on the site was an L-4 cab, built in 1936.2,3

In 1962 an R-6 cab on a 10-foot concrete base replaced it.3 A 1962 photo in the register shows the 1936 L-4 with the new R-6 under construction.3 The R-6 cab was used for emergencies in the 1980s.3 The register lists the site as registered on October 8, 2011.3

The register dates the Forest Service's removal of the cab to 2009, and the 2009 chapter report describes the job.3,4 FireLookout.com dates the removal to 2010.2 The chapter report says the chapter declined the job of taking the lookout down because of the lack of access.4 Forest Service crews then took the cab off its concrete block foundation, and a forest helicopter carried the materials off the mountain.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit today. A Kootenai National Forest trail listing still says the lookout stands at the north end of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and is staffed from mid-June to mid-September.5 That conflicts with the removal accounts, so we treat the listing as out of date.3,4 The trail, number 649, is reached from Cedar Creek Trail 141, and motor vehicles are not allowed on it.5

During the July 2026 wildfires in the Kootenai National Forest, a trail closure order covered the Scenery Mountain Trail network, and a Montanian update from late July said it remained in place.6 Check the forest's current closure notices before you set out.

  1. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Scenery Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/scenerymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Scenery Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/mt/scenery-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Northern Idaho/Montana Chapter Report, 2009 chapter reports, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-az-2009.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Scenery Mountain Lookout Trail, Kootenai National Forest site listing, data.visitmt.com, https://data.visitmt.com/data/site/5563 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Wildfire update for Kootenai National Forest, The Montanian, https://montanian.com/local-news/2026/07/23/wildfire-update-for-kootenai-national-forest/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Scenery Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1962 photo: 1936 L4 with new R6 under construction
1962 photo: 1936 L4 with new R6 under construction (1962)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
1962
1962 (1962)Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: 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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.