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Fire lookout · Crook County, Wyoming

Warren Peak Lookout

Black Hills lookout: CCC tower of 1938 replaced by a 54-ft steel tower in 1960 after Sundance AFS construction; staffed in fire season, drive-up, NHLR-registered 2026.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Reached by a short dirt road signed for the lookout, off Warren Peak Road. Stairs can be climbed almost to the top; the top floor is locked.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Short dirt road from Warren Peak Road, free parking at the base. Stairs reach almost to the top; the top floor is locked (Hiking Project).
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower54-ft steel tower and cab (1960); original 1938 cab was L-4The design: L-4
Built of
Steel
Height
54 ft (16.5 m)
Elevation
6,656 ft (2,029 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Crook County, Wyoming
Coordinates
44.47606, −104.44396
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wy-warren-peak

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. 1938 BuiltOriginal ten-foot tower with a live-in cab, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. firelookout.com calls the cab an enclosed L-4 cab, dated 1938-1939.Sources: fs.usda.gov, en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.com
  2. No record between 1938 and 1959
  3. 1959 RemovedOriginal tower demolished during construction of the Sundance Air Force Station.Source: fs.usda.gov
  4. 1960 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  5. 1960 Replaced by a new structureSteel tower and cab placed a short distance east of the original. 54 ft per Forest Service and Wikipedia; 53 ft per firelookout.com. NHLR gives 1960 as the build year.Sources: nhlr.org, fs.usda.gov, en.wikipedia.org
  6. No record between 1960 and 2026
  7. 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2026.Source: nhlr.org
  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.

Warren Peak rises in the Bear Lodge Mountains, part of the Black Hills, about six miles northwest of Sundance, Wyoming.1,2 The Black Hills National Forest holds the land, and the Forest Service's Bearlodge Ranger District lists the lookout on its recreation pages.3,4

The first lookout here went up in 1938, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built a ten-foot tower with a live-in cab.4 One site describes that cab as an enclosed L-4 cab from 1938 to 1939.2

Work on the Sundance Air Force Station, a radar station on the peak, started in 1959, and the original tower was demolished during that work.4 In 1960 a replacement went up east of the original site.4 The Forest Service and Wikipedia both give it as 54 feet tall, while firelookout.com gives 53 feet.4,1,2

The register names Mert Ellsbury of Aladdin as the first lookout. It says Maurice Classick worked the original lookout longest and helped erect its replacement.3 firelookout.com names Lyman Ellsbury for 1939, so the name of the first lookout is not settled.2

The register says the lookout is still active and manned every fire season.3 It recorded the tower on January 2, 2026.3

A short dirt road signed for the lookout runs from Warren Peak Road to the tower, with free parking at its base.5 Visitors can climb the stairs almost to the top, but the top floor is locked.5 Wikipedia says the peak is easy to reach on an unnamed road because its slope is gradual.1 One listing mentions a pit toilet at the base, while the Forest Service page says restroom information is not available, so the sources disagree on that detail.5,4

  1. Warren Peak (Wyoming), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Peak_(Wyoming) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Warren Peak Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wy/warrenpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Warren Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wy/warren-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Warren Peak Fire Lookout, Black Hills National Forest, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/blackhills/recreation/warren-peak-fire-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Warren Peak Fire Lookout, Hiking Project, https://www.hikingproject.com/gem/1027/warren-peak-fire-lookout (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Warren Peak Lookout
Photo: Dixie Boyle, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Warren Peak in 2008
Warren Peak in 2008 (2008)Photo: 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1960
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: 1938

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, 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. Recreation Information Database (recreation.gov) Gave us: ownership, access Data source: ridb.recreation.gov · Public data from the US government · retrieved 19 Oct 2026
  4. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: 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
  7. 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.