Granite Butte Lookout

A cab on a grassy ridge

The cabin is 15 feet square and stands on a 20-foot wooden tower on a grassy ridge directly on the Continental Divide. Recreation.gov puts the ridge at 7,587 feet above sea level. The Helena Independent Record, reporting when the lookout opened to renters, gave the figure as “more than 6,800 feet.” Heavy steel cables are set deep into the rock to hold the tower against the wind. The structure is extensively grounded because lightning strikes the mountaintop often. A wraparound porch circles the cab. From it the views run 360 degrees: the Scapegoat Wilderness, the Big Belt Mountains, the Scratchgravel Hills, and southeast toward Helena.

Inside are one twin bed with a mattress and three twin cots, enough for four people. There is a table, chairs, a woodstove, a propane cook stove, propane lanterns, dishes and silverware, and a broom. An axe and a splitting maul are kept for firewood. Wood is usually stacked at the base of the tower, though the Forest Service does not guarantee it. There is no electricity and no indoor plumbing. A vault toilet stands near the tower, and renters carry up their own water for drinking and washing. The door opens with a combination lock.

The ground around the tower holds wildflowers, open meadows, stands of high-elevation whitebark pine, and large rock outcrops, with conifers and streams lower down. Elk, mule and white-tailed deer, squirrels, and black bear are the common animals. Grizzly bear, badger, wolverine, mountain lion, and lynx also range here. A food storage order covers the whole Lincoln Ranger District, and the Forest Service notes that coolers do not count as bear-resistant containers. Strong winds blow in every season, and winter temperatures fall below zero.

The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail passes right by the tower. In summer it serves hikers, mountain bikers, and riders on horseback. In winter there is cross-country skiing out the back door, and more than 200 miles of groomed snowmobile trail lie nearby.

The road from the blinking light

The lookout is about 16 miles southeast of Lincoln. Stemple Pass Road #601 leaves downtown Lincoln at the blinking light and climbs about 14 miles to the top of the pass. From there Marsh Creek Road #485 runs south about 3 miles to Granite Butte Road #4133. That road narrows and roughens for its final 1.5 miles up to the tower, and high-clearance vehicles are strongly recommended.

From November until the end of May, depending on snowpack, the upper roads may not be passable by vehicle. Stemple Pass Road is plowed its whole length, and there is plowed parking at the Stemple Pass cross-country ski area. From there visitors ski or snowmobile the final 4.5 miles. One route follows the roads. The other roughly follows the Divide itself, and the Forest Service recommends it for late-winter snowmobiling because Marsh Creek Road drifts shut in the wind.

Fire watch over Stemple Pass

The first tower went up in 1932 to watch over Stemple Pass and south along the Continental Divide. A map from the years it was in use shows the visible area its fire watchers covered. The Forest Service rebuilt the tower in 1962. After that, in the Independent Record’s words, came “a half century of relentless Montana weather,” and the structure fell into disrepair.

In 2008 the tower was listed on the national register of historic lookouts, as US 744 and MT 42. The following year, the Northern Idaho/Montana chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association reported that its deputy director, Sam Chapman, had arranged the loan of a firefinder table for Granite Butte. According to the chapter report, efforts were under way to ready “the 20-foot R-6 flat top” for staffing while Stonewall Lookout was being repaired from winter damage.

A junk heap and fifty volunteers

According to the Independent Record’s 2016 account, the Montana Wilderness Association had approached the Forest Service about five years earlier with an offer to refurbish the lookout. John Gatchell, the association’s federal lands policy director, said the lookout was “pretty much a junk heap” when the volunteers began. “A lot had to be torn down -- it really was a liability,” he said. “The volunteers put in a lot of work to be able to put the pieces together and for the public to be able to enjoy this on the Continental Divide.”

The Flathead Beacon counted more than 50 volunteers. Money came from the Missouri River RAC committee, private donors, the lookout association, the Recreation Trails Program, and the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. Fresh lumber went in, and the historic character was kept. Gatchell acknowledged that a wilderness group restoring a building with a road to its doorstep made a curious relationship. He explained that the association had become the nonprofit steward of the Divide trail. “This is the only lookout on the CDT,” he said, “and it’s important to maintain that history as well.”

On Aug. 26, 2016, Granite Butte Lookout became available for public rental. Volunteers and Forest Service staff met at the tower to celebrate. Lincoln District Ranger Michael Stansberry said the agency had put money toward the project but had limited capacity to lead the construction itself. “It took a lot of effort from the volunteers, but I think it was effort that was well worth it,” he said.

The work on the ridge continued the next summer. In 2017 the association led a crew of youth from Montana Academy in moving three miles of the Divide trail at Granite Butte off the existing road and onto single-track.