MacDonald Pass Airway Beacon

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

From the record

One of 20 National Register listings published here for Powell County · listed in 2014 · category: Structure.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 site, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. US 12, Helena, 59728
When was it listed? July 2014
Category. structure
Census division. Avon-Elliston
National Register reference number. 14000462 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

120 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 120 fires within 5 miles of MacDonald Pass Airway Beacon between 1992 and 2020, burning about 374 acres in total. 22 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	44
Natural	22
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15
Railroad operations and maintenance	15
Debris and open burning	10
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Arson/incendiarism	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2009	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Helena - Lewis and Clark National Forest	DEER CR
6 September 2013	Natural	under an acre	Southwestern Land Office	MIKE RENIG
6 September 2009	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Helena - Lewis and Clark National Forest	MINITENMILE
3 September 1995	Natural	under an acre	Central Land Office	PORCUPINE
25 September 2017	Other causes	under an acre	Blackfeet Agency	BULLS EYE
25 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	170 acres	Helena - Lewis and Clark National Forest	MACDONALD PASS
24 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Helena - Lewis and Clark National Forest	PRIEST PASS
22 September 2012	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Helena - Lewis and Clark National Forest	PRIEST PASS 3

Every fire recorded in Powell County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 22 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of MacDonald Pass Airway Beacon: 13 past producers, 4 occurrences, 3 unknowns, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Stone, Dimension, Silver, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Armstrong Mine	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Blue Bell Mine	Copper, Silver, Gold, Molybdenum	Past Producer	Gold, Malachite, Molybdenite
Bluebell Mine	Gold, Copper, Molybdenum	Past Producer
Dog Creek	Limestone, General	Unknown
Elliston Quarry	Limestone, Ultra Pure	Producer	Limestone
Elliston Quarry	Calcium	Producer
Limestone Occurrence	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown
Rimini District	Gold, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Copper, Arsenic, Uranium	Past Producer	1864
Sawmill Creek Prospect	Phosphorus-Phosphates, Fluorine-Fluorite, Uranium	Occurrence
Third Term	Zinc, Silver, Lead, Gold	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Powell County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Charter Oak Mine and Mill	6.9 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 14000462 in Record Group 79.
Powell County	All 20 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.