FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Montana

Tony Peak Lookout

Lincoln County, MT tower with an L-4 cab, built 1934 and abandoned by the late 1960s; registered 2000; FireLookout.com alone says it burned in 2014.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. FireLookout.com says the tower burned in summer 2014; this is the only source read for the fire. No source describes the peak 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 sources disagree
Type
Cab on a tower10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,756 ft (1,450 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Montana
Coordinates
48.34728, −115.35397
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-tony-peak

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 4.3 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. 1934 BuiltFirst and only lookout on the peak; 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cabSource: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1999
  3. 1999 EventForest Fire Lookout Association visit during its 1999 western summer meeting in Libby led to an immediate restoration effortSource: nhlr.org
  4. 2000 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 12, 2000 as US 349, MT 31Source: nhlr.org
  5. 2014 BurnedBurned in the summer of 2014, per FireLookout.com onlySource: firelookout.com
  6. 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.

Tony Peak is nine miles east-southeast of Libby, in Lincoln County, Montana, in the Kootenai National Forest.1,2 The lookout, a 10-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab, went up in 1934, and it was the only lookout the peak ever had.1 Nobody had staffed it since the late 1960s, and vandals had badly damaged it.1

The register says the tower was nearing collapse when the Forest Fire Lookout Association came to Libby for its 1999 western summer meeting.3 After a visit to the site, the association began restoration work to slow the decay.3 The register lists the lookout as registered on May 12, 2000, and calls it one of eight hip-roofed L-4 lookouts on the Kootenai National Forest.3

FireLookout.com says the tower burned in the summer of 2014.1 It is the only source we read for that fire. No source we read describes what remains on the peak today, or whether it is open to visitors.

  1. Tony Peak Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/tonypk.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Montana Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/mt/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tony Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/mt/tony-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tony Peak Lookout
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2013
2013 (2013)Photo: Luke Channer., via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2013
2013 (2013)Photo: Luke Channer., via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2013
2013 (2013)Photo: Luke Channer., via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
2013 interior
2013 interior (2013)Photo: Luke Channer., via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Gone
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts.

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: 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, 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.