Fire lookout · Converse County, Wyoming
Esterbrook
Also known as Easterbrook Hill
Wooden L-4 lookout tower in Medicine Bow NF near Esterbrook, planned for 1940, staffed 1946-1953, now listed as gone; no source describes the site today.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Listed as gone; one lookout history page says removed. No removal date is given.
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
- Type
- Cab on a tower30-foot wooden L-4 towerThe design: L-4
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 30 ft (9.1 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Medicine Bow National Forest
- Land
- Federal land
- Location
- Converse County, Wyoming
- Coordinates
- 42.41940, −105.34587
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-wy-esterbrook
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 3.3 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
- 1940 EventSummer 1940 completion planned per a June 1940 newspaper item quoted by the source; completion not separately confirmed.Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
- 1946 First staffedDon March listed as lookout personnel, 1946-1953.Source: firelookout.com
- 1952 EventLightning temporarily damaged the tower radio, stopping communications until repairs were made.Source: westlookouts.weebly.com
- 1953 Last staffedFinal year of the 1946-1953 personnel listing.Source: firelookout.com
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.
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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Esterbrook's fire lookout was a wooden tower in the Medicine Bow National Forest, about 20 miles south of Douglas, Wyoming.1 A June 1940 Casper Star-Tribune item, as quoted on a lookout history page, said a Civilian Conservation Corps camp would move to Esterbrook that summer and that its work would include finishing a lookout tower a mile east of the ranger station.2 The forest lookout listing describes the tower as a 30-foot wooden L-4 type.1
The listing names Don March as lookout personnel from 1946 through 1953.1
In August 1952, lightning briefly damaged the tower's radio and cut communications until a repair was made.2 The same newspaper report said the Laramie Peak division had five fires in four days.2
The tower is now listed as gone, and one lookout history page says it was removed.2,3 The sources reviewed do not say what, if anything, remains on Esterbrook Hill today or whether the hill is open to visitors.1,2,3
- Esterbrook Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra), https://www.firelookout.com/wy/esterbrook.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Esterbrook Hill, Forest Lookouts (Ron Kemnow), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/esterbrook-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- Wyoming fire lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wy/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page (opens another site) 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
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- FFLA Wyoming lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Esterbrook on firelookout.com (Rex Kamstra) (opens another site)
- Easterbrook Hill on Forest Lookouts, western US (Ron Kemnow) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.