FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Flathead County, Montana

Wildcat Mountain

Flathead County, MT L-4 cab built in 1932 and destroyed in 1956 per firelookout.com; the FFLA list agrees it is gone, and no source describes any remains.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Destroyed in 1956 per firelookout.com; FFLA status Gone; beyond that status, no source describes what remains at the site

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
Ground-level cabL-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Flathead National Forest (per firelookout.com)
Land
Unknown
Location
Flathead County, Montana
Coordinates
48.24418, −113.92563
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-mt-wildcat-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. 1932 Builtfirelookout.com: '1932: L-4 cab'Source: firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1932 and 1956
  3. 1956 Destroyedfirelookout.com: 'Destroyed 1956.'Source: firelookout.com
  4. 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.

A lookout cab went up on Wildcat Mountain in 1932, about 11 miles southeast of Hungry Horse in Flathead County, Montana.1

firelookout.com describes it as an L-4 cab and gives its elevation as 6,600 feet.1 The page names the Flathead National Forest as the agency.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's Montana list types the structure as ground-level rather than a tower, and gives its coordinates as 48.24418, -113.92563.2

The page says the cab was destroyed in 1956.1 The association's list also marks the site as gone.2

Beyond that status, no source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, and none says whether visitors can reach it.1,2

  1. Wildcat Mtn. Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/mt/wildcatmtn.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.