There\u2019s a small wooden cabin at the top of Northwest Peak, a few miles from Montana\u2019s borders with Idaho and Canada, and Chuck Manning, 79, believes lookouts like this one deserve a second chance at being useful.<\/p>\n
The fire lookout sits at about 7,700 feet above sea level and seems to be in good condition despite being abandoned since 1955, when the Forest Service last staffed the outpost.<\/p>\n
Manning leads the Northwest Montana Lookout Association, a nonprofit group that supports government agencies in restoring and maintaining lookout towers around Kootenai and Flathead national forests.<\/p>\n
The Forest Service began building fire-detection towers after the Great Fire of 1910, then added more after the Civilian Conservation Corps and other government agencies considered lookouts–particularly in the West\u2014as New Deal investments.<\/p>\n
The result: State and federal workers built close to 8,800 lookouts throughout all 50 states. But by 2024, only about three in 10 lookouts remained standing. Roughly 6,200 were burned, collapsed from neglect or became scrap wood.<\/p>\n
Why did the towers–and their ever-vigilant occupants\u2014lose their fire-spotting role? Mark Hufstetler is an architectural historian who works for the Forest Service as a fire lookout at Baptiste Lookout, near Hungry Horse, Montana. He said the use of fire lookouts started declining after World War II partly because of the widespread introduction of two-way radios. They improved the range and speed of the Forest Service\u2019s ability to respond to fires.<\/p>\n