FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Park County, Wyoming

Windy Mountain Lookout Site

1940 fire tower on Windy Mountain in Shoshone National Forest, Park County, Wyoming; gone, with only the tower piers left at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Gone; all that remains at the site are the tower piers

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
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerModified L-4-style cabin on a 20-foot open timber towerThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1940
Height
Unknown
Elevation
10,276 ft (3,132 m)
Agency
US Forest Service - Shoshone National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Park County, Wyoming
Coordinates
44.79136, −109.59312
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wy-windy-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 3.8 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. 1940 BuiltRegister gives 1940; the 1940 brochure describes the tower as being erected that year, and the handbook (printed 1941) says it was being erectedSources: firetower.org, westlookouts.weebly.com, npshistory.com
  2. No record between 1940 and 2022
  3. 2022 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterAdded to the Former Fire Lookout Sites register on May 1, 2022Source: firetower.org
  4. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

A new fire tower went up on Windy Mountain in Park County in 1940, about six miles south of the Crandall Ranger Station.1,2 A Shoshone National Forest handbook printed in 1941 lists fire towers that were under construction or planned, and mentions a new tower on Clayton Mountain as well.3

The tower was expected to give a view over much of the North Absaroka wilderness, including ground burned in the Crandall Creek fire of 1935.2 The register says the cabin looks like a modified L-4 and resembles a Region 5 BC-301, and that it stands on an open timber tower 20 feet high.1

The register's photos include a 1959 view of the lookout.1

The register gives no removal date, and says all that remains at the site are the tower piers.1 A lookout-history listing marks the tower as gone.4

No source describes the site beyond those piers. The register added the site on May 1, 2022.1

  1. Windy Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wy/windy-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Windy Mountain - Forest Lookouts, https://westlookouts.weebly.com/windy-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming (handbook, printed 1941), npshistory.com, https://www.npshistory.com/publications/usfs/handbooks/shoshone/sec6.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Windy Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wy/windymtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Windy Mountain Lookout - 1959
Windy Mountain Lookout - 1959 (1959)Photo: Eunice Heiser, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Windy Mountain Lookout Site
Photo: Eunice Heiser, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout sign on tower base - 1959
Lookout sign on tower base - 1959 (1959)Photo: Eunice Heiser, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, 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) 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, status, agency, 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.