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Fire lookout · Custer County, South Dakota

Elk Mountain Lookout

Elk Mountain's 67-ft steel tower dates to 1939, lost its log cabin in a 2001 fire, and is still staffed each summer near the Wyoming line.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Forest Service describes visitors climbing 90 steps to the cab during the staffed season. Check current guidance before visiting.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
90 steps in seven flights to the cab, per Forest Service; staffed late spring to early fall.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAll-steel tower with 7-by-7-foot cab; Aermotor per firelookout.comThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1939
Height
67 ft (20.4 m)
Elevation
5,631 ft (1,716 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Custer County, South Dakota
Coordinates
43.72418, −104.04104
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-sd-elk-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.

Downloads about 3.6 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 BuiltSteel tower placed on the mountain in summer 1939; Forest Service dates the lookout to 1939-1941Sources: fs.usda.gov, westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  2. 1939 First staffedTower manned for the first time that season, per July 1939 newspaperSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1945 StaffedLookout on duty, per 1945 newspaper itemSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1945 and 1991
  5. 1991 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered November 15, 1991; nominated through the Elk Mountain Ranger DistrictSource: nhlr.org
  6. 2001 BurnedElk Mountain Fire destroyed the log cabin and outhouse; steel tower survivedSources: fs.usda.gov, westlookouts.weebly.com, firelookout.com
  7. 2011 FireWhoopUp Fire burned across the mountain; tower saved by retardant dropsSources: fs.usda.gov, westlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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.

Elk Mountain stands in the Black Hills about half a mile east of the Wyoming border, in the southwest corner of South Dakota.1 The steel tower rises 67 feet to a 7-by-7-foot cab, though sources differ on the exact height, and one lookout history site gives 75 feet.1,2,3

A July 1939 newspaper report says a steel tower had been placed on the mountain as a primary station and was manned for the first time that season.4 The Forest Service dates the lookout to between 1939 and 1941 and says a log cabin was built to go with it.1 The register instead credits the Civilian Conservation Corps with building the tower in 1941.2

A lookout history site lists named staff from 1941 to 1966, and a 1945 newspaper item mentions the lookout on Elk Mountain.3,4

In the early 2000s the Elk Mountain Fire burned 13,195 acres, taking the lookout's cabin, outhouse and most of the trees around it.1 Another lookout history site says the 2001 fire left only the steel tower standing.4 The register dates the cabin's loss to the late 1990s, which conflicts with the other sources.2 The Forest Service began replanting ponderosa pine in 2005.1 In 2011 the WhoopUp Fire burned across the mountain, and several retardant drops kept the tower standing.1,4

The register says the lookout still reports an average of eight to twelve fires a year.2 The Forest Service says the lookout is manned from late spring to early fall, and 90 steps lead up to the cab for visitors.1 The nearby Summit Ridge tower, built as a virtual twin of the original, is now unstaffed.1

The register added the lookout on November 15, 1991, on nomination from the Elk Mountain Ranger District.2 Because it is staffed in season, check the Black Hills National Forest's current guidance before you go up.

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

Photos

Elk Mountain Lookout - 2011
Elk Mountain Lookout - 2011 (2011)Photo: Ron Kemnow, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Elk Mtn. in 1941
Elk Mtn. in 1941 (1941)Photo: the National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Elk Mtn. in 2011
Elk Mtn. in 2011 (2011)Photo: the National Archives and Records Administration and Ron Kemnow, via firelookout.com · source
Photo of Elk Mountain Lookout
Photo: Runner1928, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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, 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: what it is built of, 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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · 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.