FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Ravalli County, Montana

Ward Mountain

Bitterroot NF lookout about 8 mi SW of Hamilton, MT: built 1934, staffed to 1969, closed 1971 or abandoned 1973; only pieces remain near the summit. Trail #208 is open.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower gone; a SummitPost climbing page says only pieces remain near the summit

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. Forest Service lists Trail #208 from Roaring Lion Road as open to hiking, mountain biking and motorcycles; the lookout is gone

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Trail #208 starts on Roaring Lion Road and climbs 6.3 miles to the peak; Forest Service gives 4,800 ft of gain (SummitPost says about 5,100 ft)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower10' pole L-4 towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Bitterroot National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Ravalli County, Montana
Coordinates
46.16910, −114.28568
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-ward-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. 1934 BuiltFirelookout.com gives 1934 as the build year; a July 1934 Missoulian item (quoted on Forest Lookouts) says construction had begunSources: firelookout.com, montanalookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1934 and 1956
  3. 1956 First staffedEarliest season with a named lookout on Firelookout.com; not necessarily the first season everSource: firelookout.com
  4. 1969 Last staffedLast season with a named lookout on Firelookout.comSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1971 ClosedRavalli Republic, June 1971: the forest closed Ward Mountain on the Darby districtSource: montanalookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1973 AbandonedFirelookout.com gives 1973 as the abandonment year, which differs from the 1971 closureSource: firelookout.com
  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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Ward Mountain is about eight miles southwest of Hamilton, in Ravalli County, Montana, inside the Bitterroot National Forest.1 In March 1934 the Ravalli Republic reported that a tower and lookout had been tentatively approved for the mountain. In July 1934 the Missoulian reported that construction of a lookout had begun.2 Firelookout.com gives 1934 as the year the 10-foot pole L-4 tower was built.1

Firelookout.com names lookouts for 11 seasons between 1956 and 1969, and records 1971 as not staffed.1 Newspaper items quoted on Forest Lookouts mention lookouts on the mountain between 1959 and 1969.2 A 1964 U.S. Geological Survey station description places a survey marker, set in concrete on bedrock, at the center of "the present lookout tower."2

The end of the lookout is less clear. In June 1971 the Ravalli Republic reported that Ward Mountain, on the Darby district, had been closed by the Bitter Root forest.2 Firelookout.com instead gives 1973 as the year the tower was abandoned.1 The sources disagree on the end date, and we could not reconcile the two.1,2

Today the tower is gone.1 A SummitPost climbing page says the tower stood near the top for years, and that only pieces of it remain.3 To drive to the trailhead, the Forest Service says to go four miles south of Hamilton on Highway 93 and turn right onto Roaring Lion Road.4 Trail #208 starts there and climbs 6.3 miles to the peak.4 The Forest Service lists it as open to hikers, mountain bikers and motorcyclists, and gives about 4,800 feet of climb, while SummitPost says about 5,100 feet.3,4

  1. Ward Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/wardmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ward Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://montanalookouts.weebly.com/ward-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Ward Mountain, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/ward-mountain/229250 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Ward Mountain Trail # 208, Bitterroot National Forest, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/bitterroot/recreation/trails/ward-mountain-trail-208 (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, 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.