Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout

Built in 1936 (rustic architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

From the record

“The Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout in Glacier National Park is significant as one of a chain of staffed fire lookout posts within the park. The low two-story timber-construction structure with a gabled roof was built in 1936.”
Wikipedia article Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 168 National Register listings published here for Flathead County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1936, rustic architecture, by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/31ae7b43d9e945735c8e647c06c35ffa.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Near the Continental Garden Wall in vicinity of Swiftcurrent Mountain, West Glacier, 59434
When was it listed? December 1986
Category. building
Also known as. Glacier National Park MRA
When was it built? 1936
Architectural style. rustic architecture
Architect. http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/31ae7b43d9e945735c8e647c06c35ffa
National Register reference number. 86003694 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

24 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Swiftcurrent Fire Lookout between 1992 and 2018, burning about 27 acres in total. 23 started naturally. None was 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
Natural	23
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
13 September 1996	Natural	under an acre	Glacier National Park	BLICK
7 August 1993	Natural	under an acre	Glacier National Park	CHALET
25 August 2011	Natural	under an acre	Bitterroot National Forest	BOG FIRE
25 August 2000	Natural	22 acres	Glacier National Park	GRINNEL POINT
24 August 2000	Natural	1.2 acres	Glacier National Park	WINONA
20 August 2018	Natural	under an acre	Glacier National Park	FLATTOP
2 August 2001	Natural	under an acre	Glacier National Park	HAYSTACK
2 August 1994	Natural	under an acre	Glacier National Park	SOUTH KIPP

Every fire recorded in Flathead County

Storms near this property

9 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Glacier, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2004 and 2015: 2 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
November 2006	Flash Flood	West Glacier	$7,000,000	The Associated Press reported 7.0 million in damages. Glacier National Park received 9.1 of rainfall in 36 hours. An additional .5 to 1.0 million in damages occurred to the park's trails.
February 2015	Heavy Rain	West Glacier	-	A rockslide was reported along US-2 just east of West Glacier, MT. The eastbound lane was blocked by softball-sized rocks. Road crews cleared debris and the road was usable again an hour later.
July 2014	Heavy Rain	West Glacier	-	The Glacier National Park RAWS reported 0.76 of rainfall in one hour. Other heavy rainfall reports include 0.78 40 min. ending 4:10 pm MDT 3 miles east of Creston and 0.65 in one hour via Hungry Horse RAWS at 6:11 pm MDT.
May 2013	Flood	West Glacier	-	Minor flooding occurred to agricultural lands in the low lying areas adjacent to the middle fork of the Flathead River near West Glacier.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	West Glacier	-	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	West Glacier	-	no account filed
May 2006	Flood	West Glacier	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	West Glacier	-	no account filed
September 2004	Hail	West Glacier	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Flathead 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

5 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Granite Park Chalet	1.1 miles	1983
Cattle Queen Snowshoe Cabin	3.0 miles	1999
Swiftcurrent Ranger Station Historic District	4.2 miles	1986
Logan Creek Patrol Cabin	4.3 miles	1986
Ptarmigan Tunnel	5.4 miles	1986

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 86003694 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Flathead County	All 168 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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.