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Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Stryker Ridge

Flathead County lookout that was a converted school bus with a cupola, dated to the 1960s; the page marks it gone in 1969.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone; no source describes what remains at the site today

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Trailer or portable cabConverted school bus with a cupolaThe design: Cupola house
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Montana DNRC (named on the firelookout.com page; role not stated)
Land
Unknown
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.65201, −114.63624
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-stryker-ridge

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 4.0 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. 1969 EventPage marks the lookout 'Gone 1969'; no cause givenSource: firelookout.com
  2. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. 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.

Stryker Ridge is a lookout site about 21 miles northwest of Whitefish, in Flathead County, at an elevation of 6,906 feet.1 Its watch cab started life as a school bus, with a cupola on top.1,2

The firelookout.com page dates the conversion to the 1960s. It also names the Montana DNRC, with no role stated.1 It marks the lookout gone in 1969.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list also marks the site gone, gives its type as bus and cupola, and places it at 48.65201, -114.63624.2

The page carries a photo credited to the Dave Masters collection.1 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, and none says whether the public can reach it. Ask the agency before planning a visit.

  1. Stryker Ridge Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/strykerridge.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Montana lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.