SEPTEMBER 2025 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The Great Falls Tribune, June 30, 1920 Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ F i r e fi g h t e r L o o k o u t C e l e b r a t e s 7 0 Ye a r s In 1923, the U.S. Forest Service constructed the original Firefighter Lookout in the South Fork of the Flathead River, a standard D-6 design used between 1916 and 1929, containing a 12 x 12 cabin and a cupola. The lookout sat on the ground on top of the southeast ridge of Firefighter Mountain. The lookout became one of over 650 fire lookouts in Montana built to help the fledgling U.S. Forest Service detect fires after the Great Fire of 1910 burned 3 million acres largely in northern Idaho and western Montana. Historical information does not appear to exist about the use of the lookout and the role it may have played throughout the years. Firefighter stood watch while the Hungry Horse Dam changed the South Fork landscape. But a brush fire got out of control during the clearing operation and destroyed the lookout sometime between 1948 and 1952, before the opening of the dam in July 1953. Relic artifacts such as broken glass, charred wood, and the remains of a cookstove and stovepipe remain, as well as red argillite rocks from parts of the foundation. The Bureau of Reclamation built the present 41-foot Firefighter Lookout tower and the access road to replace Riverside Lookout, about two miles south of the first Firefighter Lookout. Riverside was lost to the reservoir. Firefighter Mountain contains two distinct knolls, and the northern knoll was the chosen site to construct the new lookout. The map (next page) shows both sites as well as two trails that head south. It is possible that the easternmost trail connected with Riverside Lookout, which would have been U.S. Forest Service Photo Firefighter Lookout Construction, 1923
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