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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Stahl Peak Lookout

A 1926-27 cupola cabin in the Kootenai National Forest, not staffed or rented; repaired with Legacy funds in 2024, with a major rehab tentatively planned for 2026.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Not staffed or rented; reached by a hike of a couple of miles off the Pacific Northwest Trail.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
A hike of a couple of miles off the Pacific Northwest Trail
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cabCupola-style lookout cabinThe design: D-6
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1926
Height
Unknown
Elevation
7,281 ft (2,219 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.92140, −114.84652
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-stahl-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 4.0 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. 1926 BuiltCabin kit packed in fall 1926; the 2024 newsletter says construction finished in spring 1927Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com, nwmt-ffla.org
  2. No record between 1926 and 2021
  3. 2021 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterDate registered January 9, 2021Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2023 Condition assessmentPre-project assessment for the planned window, shutter and south-wall work; the association page links a KNF file labelled 2023Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  5. 2024 RestoredFive-day volunteer project: cleaning, painting, cupola window and shutter repairs, rodent-proofing; $1,700 of Legacy Restoration Funds for maintenanceSource: nwmt-ffla.org
  6. 2026 Condition assessmentPre-project assessment for planned window, shutter and south-wall restoration.Source: nwmt-ffla.org
  7. 2026 EventMajor rehab tentatively planned for 2026; completion not confirmed in the sources readSource: nwmt-ffla.org
  8. 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.

Stahl Peak Lookout is a cupola cabin on a high outcrop in the Ten Lakes area, within the Kootenai National Forest.1,2 It sits on the Rexford-Fortine (Ksanka) District, outside Fortine, Montana.3 The newsletter places it among the many lookouts put up while staffing was at its peak.3

Its cabin kit was packed 16 miles up Graves Creek to the summit in the fall of 1926 by two local wranglers.3 It took three trips with 18 mules to move everything.3 Snow fell before the job was finished, so the 2024 newsletter gives spring 1927 as the completion date.3 The register, FireLookout.com and the association's 2026 page all give 1926 as the build year.4,1,2

The lookout was an active fire-detection post into the 1960s, and sources also describe emergency use into that decade.4,2 The association's 2026 page says it now operates as an emergency shelter close to the Pacific Northwest Trail.2 It is not staffed and is not part of the recreation rental program.3 Visitors reach it by hiking a couple of miles off the trail.3

The lookout had fallen to the bottom of the maintenance list before Legacy Restoration Funds, from the Great American Outdoors Act, came through.3 The association's initial size-up found a long list of repairs, including new shutters, several new windows, a full re-glazing, soffit and fascia work, repainting, and a thorough clean with rodent removal.3 In 2024 the lookout received $1,700 of Legacy funds for maintenance.3

Volunteers spent five days cleaning out the lookout and cupola.3 They painted the exterior, replaced two cupola windows that had been repaired offsite, repaired shutters and worked toward rodent-proofing.3

The association's 2026 project page calls the pre-project assessment "this year's" work, but the Forest Service file it links is labelled 2023, so the year is unclear.2 The planned work covers all windows and shutters, plus the south wall, which has settled because its foundation is loose-stacked rock.2 A major rehab was tentatively planned for 2026.3 The sources I read do not confirm whether it went ahead.

  1. Stahl Peak Fire Lookout Cabin, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/stahlpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. 2026 Projects, Northwest Montana Lookout Association, https://nwmt-ffla.org/2026/03/07/2026-projects/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Fall 2024 newsletter, Northwest Montana Lookout Association, https://nwmt-ffla.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2024-newsletter.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Stahl Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/stahl-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Stahl Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stahl Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stahl Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stahl Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Stahl Peak L.O.
Stahl Peak L.OPhoto: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Stahl Peak in 2021
Stahl Peak in 2021 (2021)Photo: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, via firelookout.com · source
Stahl Peak in 2021
Stahl Peak in 2021 (2021)Photo: Gary Weber and Luke Channer, 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: dates, 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. Northwest Montana Lookout Association Gave us: what it is built of, design, dates, links Northwest Montana Lookout Association (nwmt-ffla.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, dimensions, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the NMLA page or PDF it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLA records (NMLA publishes none). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. 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

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