Museums 401: Forest Fire Lookouts (photo diary)

by Ojibwa for Museums

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Sunday, Feb. 08, 2026 Sunday, Feb. 08, 2026 at 7:15:10am PST

In 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. This office was expanded in 1881 to become the Division of Forestry. In 1905 the United States Forest Service (USFS) came into existence as an agency of the Department of Agriculture. Gifford Pinchot was picked to lead the new agency.

One of the tasks of the USFS has been the detection and control of forest fires. John Grosvenor, in his book A History of the Architecture of the USDA Forest Service, writes:

“The greatest single motivator for fire protection within the Forest Service was its Chief, Gifford Pinchot. Part of Pinchot's plan was to convince the public that the Forest Service mission included fire detection and prevention. Pinchot and many of his followers believed that wildland fires should be prevented whenever possible or, if that failed, that fires be suppressed.”

In mapping the national forests during the early years of the USFS, specific mountaintops were considered for detection locations. From these mountain tops, smoke from fires could be spotted and their locations relied to fire crews. John Grosvenor writes:

“The earliest lookouts were high peaks with an unobstructed view, with tents as shelters and short mapboard stands for pinpointing the smoke on maps. After 1905. tall trees, crude observation-only towers, platforms, and small log cabins began to be used.”

The forest fires of 1910 in Montana, Idaho, and Washington changed how the Forest Service viewed forest fires. One of the innovations was the development of a series of fire lookouts, often located on mountain tops, which could spot and located fires early.

The firefinder, an instrument designed by Forest Service surveyor William Osborne, is used to determine the position of smoke in relation to the lookout tower.

Fire lookouts are often in remote locations. To signal to other locations, mirrors—known as heliographs—were used to flash messages. Soon, however, telephone wires were installed and in the 1930s radios became more common.

In 1913, the Forest Service hired Hallie Dagett as its first woman lookout. She held this job for 14 years.

Fire lookout towers have an effective range of about a 20-mile radius. Today, many of the lookouts are not needed for fire surveillance and serve as vista points for visitors. According to the Forest Service:

“For the time being, several hundred human lookouts staff tour overlooking our forests each summer, keeping the lookout legacy alive and our forests safe.”

Many different designs for fire lookouts have been used. Shown below are some of these designs from a display in the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula in Missoula, Montana.

The National Museum of Forest Service History in Missoula, Montana has photos of several different types of forest fire lookouts.

Shown below are some museum displays of fire lookouts.

National Museum of Forest Service History, Missoula, Montana

P1550368 — Shown above is the firefinder.

P1550350 — Shown above is the firefinder.

P1550355 — Shown above is the bed. It uses a rope webbing rather than a mattress.

Polson Flathead Lake Museum, Polson, Montana

P1540476 — Shown above is the system for hauling supplies to the cabin on top of the lookout.

Columbia Gorge Museum, Stevenson, Washington

P1510838 — Shown above is a model of a fire lookout station.

Stevensville Historical Museum, Stevensville, Montana

P1200766 — Shown above is a model of a fire lookout.

Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, Montana

Museum of North Idaho, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Lookouts began to be constructed in the national forests by 1905 and by 1915 the design for the lookouts had become standardized.

photo P1160573_zps5qh6e31x.jpg — Shown above are the blueprints for the standardized lookout.

photo P1160566_zpsok7rzmmf.jpg — Shown above is a portable phone which could be attached to a telephone line. To ring the phone at the other end, the handle was cranked.

photo P1160568_zpscjrgvoj8.jpg — Shown above is the Special Portable Fire Radio (SPF) which was first used in the 1930s in lookouts or in fire camps.

By 1917, almost all working lookouts and ranger stations had telephones.

Smokejumper Visitor Center, Missoula, Montana

In order to fight a forest fire, it must be spotted and located. Fire lookouts are located on mountain tops throughout the region where people can scan the landscape looking for smoke and notifying the firefights. Shown below are photographs from the displays in the full-size lookout at the Smokejumpers Center.