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Fire lookout · Pennington County, South Dakota

Bear Mountain Lookout

Bear Mountain's lookout dates to 1910; its wooden tower gave way in 1939 to a 30-foot steel tower with an L-4 cab that is still staffed each summer.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Gravel road to the summit per the register. Forest Service page (undated) describes a winter warming station for recreationists and a planned public toilet.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Gravel road leads to the summit; staffed late spring through early fall. The sources do not describe climbing the cab.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAll-steel tower with L-4 cab (1939 replacement)The design: L-4
Built of
Steel
Built
1910
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
7,166 ft (2,184 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Pennington County, South Dakota
Coordinates
43.86990, −103.74400
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sd-bear-mountain

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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1910 BuiltFirst tower, per Forest Service. The brief's 1926 date is not a construction date.Source: fs.usda.gov
  2. 1914 AlteredEnclosed cab addedSource: fs.usda.gov
  3. 1915 StaffedForest guard in constant attendance during fire season (Lead Daily Call item, as quoted)Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1924 AlteredCab enlargedSource: fs.usda.gov
  5. 1926 BuiltSource: firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page
  6. 1939 Replaced by a new structureWooden tower dismantled; 30-foot all-steel tower with L-4 cab raised; tower and garage built by the Custer CCCSources: fs.usda.gov, nhlr.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1939 and 1967
  8. 1967 AlteredCab modernizedSource: fs.usda.gov
  9. No record between 1967 and 2010
  10. 2010 AlteredPrefabricated building replaced older radio buildingSource: fs.usda.gov
  11. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017 as US 1203, SD 6Source: nhlr.org
  12. 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.

Bear Mountain carries a fire lookout about 7,200 feet up, northwest of Custer in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota.1 The register gives the elevation as 7,166 feet, so the two sources differ slightly.1,2

The first tower went up in 1910, and an enclosed cab was added in 1914. The cab was enlarged in 1924.1 A 1915 newspaper item, quoted by a lookout history site, describes a forest guard posted at the Bear Mountain station throughout the dangerous fire season.3

In 1939 the old wooden tower was taken down and replaced with a 30-foot all-steel tower topped by an L-4 cab.3,2,4 The Forest Service says the Custer Civilian Conservation Corps built the 1939 tower and its garage.1 The cab was modernized in 1967, and in 2010 the old radio shelter was swapped for a prefabricated building.1

A lookout history site lists named personnel starting in 1926.4 According to the Forest Service, the lookout is still in use, with staff from late spring to early fall.1 The garage, once used for vehicle storage, is now a winter warming station for recreationists, and the Forest Service plans to remove it to make way for a public toilet and two interpretive panels.1

The register added the tower in June 2017. The Forest Service describes that as a first step toward National Register listing.2,1 According to the register, a gravel road runs all the way to the summit.2 Because it is still a staffed lookout, check current Forest Service guidance before going up. The sources do not say whether visitors may climb the cab.

  1. Bear Mountain Fire Lookout, U.S. Forest Service, Black Hills National Forest, https://fs.usda.gov/r02/blackhills/recreation/bear-mountain-fire-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bear Mountain Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/sd/bear-mountain-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Bear Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Rex's Fire Lookout Page (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/bear-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Bear Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/sd/bearmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bear Mountain Lookout
Photo: Brad Wheeler, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Bear Mtn. in 1913
Bear Mtn. in 1913 (1913)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service, National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1918
Bear Mtn. in 1918 (1918)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service, National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. L.O.
Bear Mtn. L.OPhoto: the U.S. Forest Service, National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 1941
Bear Mtn. in 1941 (1941)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service, National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Bear Mtn. in 2011
Bear Mtn. in 2011 (2011)Photo: the U.S. Forest Service, National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, 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: design, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height 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, height, 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.