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Fire lookout · Custer County, South Dakota

Cicero Peak Lookout Site

Custer County lookout built 1939 on Cicero Peak; decommissioned 1973-74, moved off the mountain in 1980 and shown at a Rapid City attraction until 1997. Summit now has no tower.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower taken off the mountain in 1980; no source says where it stands now, and no source describes the summit remains

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. National forest land; hiking road from Custer is closed to motor vehicles each year from December 15 to May 15 (SummitPost)

Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Rugged 1.6-mile road to the summit, per SummitPost; there is no tower to climb

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower30-foot steel tower with L-4 cab, replacing an earlier wooden towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1939
Height
30 ft (9.1 m)
Elevation
6,107 ft (1,861 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Black Hills National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, South Dakota
Coordinates
43.67938, −103.56136
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sd-cicero-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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.4 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. 1939 BuiltFirelookout and a 1939 newspaper item give 1939; the register and Wikipedia give a 1939-1940 spanSources: firelookout.com, westlookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  2. 1939 First staffedElmer Jorgenson named as lookout in 1939 coverageSources: firelookout.com, westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1939 and 1973
  4. 1973 Last staffedForest Lookouts lists 1973 as the final season of staffing; Wikipedia says the tower was used until 1974Sources: westlookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  5. 1980 RemovedWikipedia gives March 19, 1980; Forest Lookouts gives October 1980; SummitPost gives 1980Sources: en.wikipedia.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, summitpost.org
  6. No record between 1980 and 1997
  7. 1997 ClosedRapid City attraction that displayed the tower closed in 1997Sources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1997 and 2026
  9. 2026 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered January 2, 2026, nominated by Dixie BoyleSource: firetower.org
  10. 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.

Cicero Peak lies about six miles south-southeast of Custer, in the Black Hills National Forest.1 An earlier wooden tower stood there first.1,2 A 30-foot steel tower with an L-4 cab went up in 1939 to replace it.1,2 The register and Wikipedia give a build span of 1939 to 1940.3,4

Elmer Jorgenson was the lookout named in the 1939 coverage.2 In 1941, Bryon Hazeltine was sent up to finish the season.2 June Johnston is the last person the register names as working the site.3 In July 1967 the lookout reported two spot fires caused by lightning, and a Custer district crew put both out.2

According to the register, most of the forest's lookout towers were shut down during the 1970s as aircraft spotting took over, and Cicero was marked for closure in 1973.3 Forest Lookouts lists 1973 as the final season of staffing.2 Wikipedia says the tower was used until 1974.4

After the tower was declared surplus in the 1970s, a Custer resident bought it, according to the register.3 The register then says Marine Life in Rapid City took it on as a tourist attraction, and that the exhibit shut in 1997.3 Forest Lookouts says the tower was hauled off the mountain on a flatbed trailer in October 1980, and that the attraction closed in 1997.2 Wikipedia gives March 19, 1980 as the removal date.4 SummitPost tells a different story, with a private buyer in Custer.5

The peak is national forest land.5 SummitPost describes a rugged 1.6-mile road to the top, which the Forest Service closes to motor vehicles each year from December 15 to May 15.5 None of the sources we read describes what remains of the lookout on the summit, or where the tower stands today.3

  1. Cicero Peak Fire Lookout Tower, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.firelookout.com/sd/ciceropeak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cicero Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/cicero-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Cicero Peak Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/sd/cicero-peak-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Cicero Peak (South Dakota), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero_Peak_(South_Dakota) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Cicero Peak, SummitPost, https://www.summitpost.org/cicero-peak/899234 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.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: height, 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
  5. 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.