Fire Lookout Tower House

By Alex in Architecture, Pictures, Travel on Sep 19, 2009 at 3:01 am

(L) Fire Tower home in western Montana,
photo: Heidi Long and Gravity Shots; More at Timber Home Living
(R) Fire lookout tower in western Poland. Image: Mohylek [Wikipedia]

Imagine a house in the forest – you’re surrounded by trees and wildlife with no neighbors for miles. The view is simply stunning. The downside: bringing all those bags of groceries up the neverending flights of stairs!

Well, this may be the perfect house for some (very fit) people: old fire lookout towers converted into modern homes!

If location, location and location are what drive your visions of a dream tree house design or luxury hillside wood home then look no further: fire towers that once served vital protective services to natural forests are becoming increasingly used for new purposes including mountaintop homes with incredible views.

Link

Tags: fire lookout tower, House, Montana

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FishBottleT
Sep 19th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Well you would not have to worry about floods. I think it would be really neat to live in one of these. Pluse the forest service may pay you to watch for fires too!!
seekshelter
Sep 19th, 2009 at 7:51 am
did the site crash?
Carl
Sep 19th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Yeah I can’t access it, seekshelter.

But about lugging the groceries up the stairs, just do the old tree fort thing. Put ‘em in a box at the bottom and then pull it up with a rope when you get to the top. Oh and install a fireman’s pole…wheeeeeee (thud).
Chance
Sep 19th, 2009 at 9:01 am
We quite often spend a whole weekend driving and hiking the back roads (we now live in co, but have also lived in wa and or) trying to find these places. We have came a cross a handful that are sill staffed, and the rangers that live there are always the most hospitable people around! It may be because they rarely see people, but they will point you towards the most amazing sites in the area.

I would love to have one of those look out houses for my own home!
Kalel
Sep 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I’d love to live out in the middle of the wilderness like that… provided I could still get my Neatorama.
LiveJasmin
Sep 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
site it not working for me..
But living in peace like that would be awesome!
WordyGrrl
Sep 20th, 2009 at 1:11 am
The site worked for me, but didn’t show anything about the inside of the houses or how the conversions were made. Would have loved to have read about that.

And yeah, living in peaceful solitude would be nice. Except for my fear of heights. That part would be kinda sucky.
D Bozko
Sep 20th, 2009 at 10:32 am
The idea of living that far away from everything sounds appealing to me but the practicality of actually doing it does not. No electricity, no communication, no running water, not to mention if you have some kind of emergency. A weekend get away sure, but not for more than that.
Jaycatt
Sep 21st, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I’ve rented a couple of these before, in the Oregon Cascades. It was a blast, possibly because the lookout we had (Fall Mountain, 5,949 feet) was adjacent to a sort of satellite tower which provided it with electricity. It was pretty nice to have electric lights, a stove, and an electric wall heater to keep away the chill. Even staying there on Memorial Day, we had a snowstorm. Another plus was the ability to drive up to the very base of it with a truck and not have to hike in! I completely recommend it, as the views were outstanding, and you really get a feeling for how weather systems move through the mountains.
Live
Sep 26th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Oh its cool a house in the forest

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