FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Granite County, Montana

Sliderock

Also known as Sliderock Mountain

Sliderock Mountain lookout, Granite County MT: a 40-ft L-4 tower by 1935, moved to Fort Missoula museum in 1983 or 1984; the mountain tower is gone.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at the Fort Missoula Historical Museum

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. The tower on Sliderock Mountain is listed as gone; the cab and part of the tower were moved to the Fort Missoula Historical Museum.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. Stands on the grounds of the Fort Missoula Historical Museum. The museum page describes visitors standing on a landing between two flights of stairs; no hours or climbing rules were found.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towerL-4 type, 40-foot pole tower (firelookout.com); museum describes an L-4 support structureThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1919
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Lolo/Admin. Deer Lodge National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Granite County, Montana
Coordinates
46.58927, −113.55621
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-sliderock

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at a typical height for a lookout like it.

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

  1. 1919 BuiltSite first developed with a 35-foot pole platform and a scale-model log cabin.Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1930 BuiltMuseum dates the lookout to about 1930; the marker says it was manufactured in Columbia Falls that year.Sources: buildings.fortmissoulamuseum.org, treasurestate.com
  3. 1935 BuiltFirelookout.com says a 40-foot pole L-4 tower was built on the site.Source: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1935 and 1983
  5. 1983 MovedTaken apart on its mountain and moved to the Fort Missoula museum, with help from the Friends of the Historical Museum and the Missoula Chapter of the Society of American Foresters.Sources: buildings.fortmissoulamuseum.org, treasurestate.com
  6. 1984 MovedFirelookout.com says the cab and top two-thirds of the tower went to Fort Missoula. Conflicts with the 1983 date.Source: firelookout.com
  7. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to the Fort Missoula Historical Museum.Source: FFLA
  8. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. When it came down is not recorded.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Sliderock was a fire lookout on Sliderock Mountain, about 21 miles north-northwest of Philipsburg in Granite County, Montana.1 Ron Kemnow lists the agency as the Lolo/Admin. Deer Lodge National Forest,2 while firelookout.com names only the Lolo National Forest.1

In 1919 the site was developed with a 35-foot pole platform and a model log cabin.1 Firelookout.com says a 40-foot pole L-4 tower followed in 1935.1 The Fort Missoula museum dates the lookout to about 1930, and a state marker says it was made in Columbia Falls, Montana, that year, along with other prefabricated lookouts shipped across a four-state region.3,4 The museum says L-4 lookouts were portable enough for pack animals to haul to a site, where they were set up on timbers cut there.3 The museum says the 1910 fires pushed the Forest Service to rethink its practices, and that is when it began building lookouts.3

In 1983 the lookout was taken apart on its mountain and moved to the Fort Missoula museum, with help from the Friends of the Historical Museum and the Missoula Chapter of the Society of American Foresters.3,4 Firelookout.com instead says the cab and top two-thirds of the tower went there in 1984.1 Kemnow's page says only that it was moved to Fort Missoula to be used as a display.2 The sources disagree on the year and on how much of the lookout moved.1,3,2

The tower on the mountain is listed as gone.5 No source we found describes what, if anything, remains at the original site today.

The lookout now stands at the museum, on what the marker calls its own “mini-Sliderock” mountain.3,4 The first section of stairs was removed, so it sits lower than it would have on the original site.3,4 The museum's page describes visitors standing on the landing between two flights of stairs, so check with the museum for hours before you go.3

  1. Sliderock Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/sliderock.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Sliderock Mountain, Forest Lookouts, Ron Kemnow, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/sliderock-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Sliderock Lookout, Fort Missoula Buildings, https://buildings.fortmissoulamuseum.org/sliderock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Sliderock Lookout Tower: Montana Historic Marker, treasurestate.com, https://treasurestate.com/historic-markers/sliderock-lookout-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Montana fire lookouts index, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. 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
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: agency, ownership, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.