FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Albany County, Wyoming

Jelm Mountain

Albany County, WY two-story lookout: 1938 federal lookout reserve, 1940s-50s staffing, cab removed 1977 for the WIRO observatory now on the summit.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Cab removed in 1977; the summit now holds the University of Wyoming's Wyoming Infrared Observatory.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Working university observatory; public daytime tours are by reservation through the UW Physics & Astronomy Department.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Two-story building10-foot stone base topped with an L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
Unknown
Height
665 ft (202.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Land
Unknown
Location
Albany County, Wyoming
Coordinates
41.09703, −105.97713
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wy-jelm-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 3.1 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. 1938 EventFederal land on the mountain reserved for a Forest Service fire-lookout stationSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1945 StaffedMargaret Evans listed as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  3. 1946 AlteredAutomatic radio relay equipment newly installed at the lookoutSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1950 StaffedMr. and Mrs. Ivan Bartell listed as lookout personnelSource: firelookout.com
  5. 1953 StaffedLola Falkenhain and Elizabeth Sinclair opened the stationSource: westlookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1953 and 1977
  7. 1977 EventWyoming Infrared Observatory completed on the summit, September 1977Source: uwyo.edu
  8. 1977 RemovedLookout cab removed to make way for the Wyoming University Astronomical ObservatorySources: firelookout.com, uwyo.edu
  9. 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.

Jelm Mountain rises about 25 miles southwest of Laramie, in Albany County.1 The lookout was a cab on a 10-foot stone base.1 The listings name the Bureau of Land Management as the agency, though the 1938 order reserved the land for the Forest Service.1,2

In December 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order setting aside a tract on the mountain for a Forest Service lookout.2 In June 1946 new automatic radio relay equipment at the lookout was set to catch messages from other lookouts and from rangers' traveling transmitters, then rebroadcast them to the Laramie forest office.2

The listings name Margaret Evans as lookout personnel in 1945, and Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Bartell in 1950.1 In June 1953 two women, Lola Falkenhain and Elizabeth Sinclair, opened the station.2 The 1953 article gave the summit as 9,665 feet, while the university gives 9,656 feet.2,3

The listing says the cab was taken down in 1977 to clear room for a university astronomical observatory.1 The summit now holds the university's Wyoming Infrared Observatory, completed in September 1977.3

The observatory is in use every clear night by university astronomers and students.3 Public daytime tours are available through the Physics & Astronomy Department, and reservations are required.3 No source describes any remains of the lookout cab today.

  1. Jelm Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, Rex's Fire Lookout Page, https://www.firelookout.com/wy/jelmmtn.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Jelm Mountain - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (westlookouts.weebly.com), https://westlookouts.weebly.com/jelm-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Wyoming Infrared Observatory, University of Wyoming, https://www.uwyo.edu/physics/observatories/wiro.html (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. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: height, agency, 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, 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.