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Fire lookout · Lincoln County, Wyoming

Wyoming Peak Lookout

Wyoming's highest fire lookout site; an L-4 cab replaced earlier tent and stone camps in the 1930s, was abandoned in 1957, and collapsed around 2010.

Ruins: Only footings or remains are left. Collapsed around 2010; OpenStreetMap and the FFLA's Wyoming list both show it gone, though the NHLR status field still reads 'standing' even as the NHLR page's own text describes the collapse.

Visit & stay

Ruins: footings or remains only. There is no structure to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. No source describes current access or trail conditions; nothing remains to shelter in or climb.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Ruins sources disagree
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 ground cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
11,375 ft (3,467 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (Bridger-Teton National Forest)
Land
Federal land
Location
Lincoln County, Wyoming
Coordinates
42.60424, −110.62387
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wy-wyoming-peak

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 3.5 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. 1931 First staffedEarliest recorded lookout staffer, Garland Toland, predating the L-4 cab, consistent with an earlier tent/stone camp on the summit.Source: firelookout.com
  2. 1932 BuiltNHLR dates the lookout's service from 1932; a Forest Service history of BTNF lookouts counts 23 years of service ending 1957, which implies a start closer to 1934. Exact build year unresolved.Sources: nhlr.org, buckrail.com
  3. 1940 Last staffedLatest recorded staffer in available sources, Garland Toland.Source: firelookout.com
  4. No record between 1940 and 1957
  5. 1957 AbandonedForest Service abandoned the lookout in favor of aerial fire detection.Sources: nhlr.org, buckrail.com
  6. No record between 1957 and 2010
  7. 2010 DestroyedStructure collapsed; NHLR gives 2010, firelookout.com gives 'early 2010s'.Sources: nhlr.org, firelookout.com
  8. No record between 2010 and 2026
  9. 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 2, 2026, nominated by Dixie Boyle.Source: nhlr.org
  10. TodayRuinsOnly footings or remains are 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 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

A lookout above timberline

Wyoming Peak, at 11,375 feet in Lincoln County, is the highest fire lookout site in the state.1,2 Before any cabin stood here, Forest Service crews kept watch from stone wind-break "towers" and tents, hauling drinking water five miles up a steep trail from the nearest spring.2

In the 1930s the agency replaced that exposed camp with a proper lookout cabin, built mainly to give the watchers shelter the stone walls and canvas never had from lightning and mountain storms.2 Sources disagree on exactly when: the National Historic Lookout Register dates the lookout's service from 1932, while a Buckrail history of Bridger-Teton lookouts counts twenty-three years of use ending in 1957, which points closer to 1934.1,2 The cabin itself was an L-4, the standard Forest Service lookout design of the period.3

Staff are recorded on the peak across both the tent and cabin years: Garland Toland in 1931, 1934, and 1940; Milford Gardner in 1933; and A. Verl Taysom in 1935.3

The Forest Service abandoned Wyoming Peak Lookout in 1957, part of its broader move from staffed towers to aerial fire detection.1,2 The empty cabin stood for decades afterward before it finally gave way: the National Historic Lookout Register, which registered the site on January 2, 2026 from a photograph by Dixie Boyle, dates the collapse to around 2010, and firelookout.com similarly places it in the early 2010s.1,3

Today there is no standing structure. OpenStreetMap maps the site as ruins,4 and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's own Wyoming list marks it "Collapsed."5 This record's "standing" status is accordingly out of date — it was inherited from the National Historic Lookout Register's status field, which the register keeps even though its own page about the lookout describes the 2010 collapse. There is nothing left to climb or shelter in at Wyoming Peak; whatever remains at 11,375 feet on the Bridger-Teton National Forest is a site to be read about rather than visited as a building.

  1. Wyoming Peak Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/wy/wyoming-peak-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. "Peak into the Past With History of Wyo, BTNF Fire Lookouts," Buckrail, https://buckrail.com/peak-into-the-past-with-history-of-wyo-btnf-fire-lookouts/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  3. Wyoming Peak Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wy/wyomingpeak.html (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  4. OpenStreetMap way 1037816876, https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1037816876 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  5. Wyoming Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/wy/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

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

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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 whether it still stands.

    • FFLA: Ruins
    • NHLR: Standing
    • firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page: Gone
    • OpenStreetMap: Ruins

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered. firelookout.com lists it, but not on its map of standing lookouts.

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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.