JEFFERSON COUNTY
THUNDERBOLT MOUNTAIN
Deerlodge National Forest
7N-7W-27
7N-7W-27
July 18, 1937: "CCC camp began work on a new lookout at Thunderbolt. When completed there will be two lookout. Thunderbolt lookout, at 8,000 feet and Haystack lookout at 8,862 feet altitude." (Montana Butte Standard)
August 15, 1937: "In this same district the Thunderbolt lookout tower is being built on the peak of that name in the Continental divide, northeast of Butte. Telephone communication lines have already been put through. (Montana Butte Standard)
August 22, 1937: “Thunderbolt lookout station, situated on a peak 9,400 feet high, is nearing completion as reported by Ranger L.L. Lake. A spike camp constructed on a 20-foot tower with a glass enclosure. Inside will be living quarters to accommodate station tenders.
The lookout will serve a large area of the Helena and Deer Lodge forests. Telephone line has already been constructed. Also under construction is a telephone line from the CCC camp to Dry Cottonwood ranger station which will connect the Deer Lodge and Boulder district for fire control purposes. This fall it will be determined what other lookouts will be necessary in the Boulder district.” (Montana Butte Standard)
The lookout will serve a large area of the Helena and Deer Lodge forests. Telephone line has already been constructed. Also under construction is a telephone line from the CCC camp to Dry Cottonwood ranger station which will connect the Deer Lodge and Boulder district for fire control purposes. This fall it will be determined what other lookouts will be necessary in the Boulder district.” (Montana Butte Standard)
September 3, 1937: "By mid-September the lookout on Thunderbolt peak, 8,400 feet high, near Basin will be completed by CCC workers, forestry officials stated. Telephone lines were completed as well as trails to the lookout several days ago.
With the completion of Thunderbolt lookout there will be five lookouts in the Deer Lodge National forest in the vicinity of Butte." (Montana Butte Standard)
September 5, 1937: "Mike Quinn of the Lazy T ranch, who has just completed packing lumber material and supplies for the Cable Mountain lookout west of Anaconda, where L.R. McCullough of Boulder is engaged in constructing the tower and buildings, has taken a contract to pack over 16,000 of the same kind of material to Thunderbolt peak where the C.C.C. boys are building a new lookout on the Boulder district. Mr. Quinn is using a string of six pack horses on which everything for the building must be packed for a distance of about four miles. Tower logs must be skidded up the steep mountrainside for over one-half mile.
Packing two dozen glass windows on horses requires some skill, if they are to be delivered with the panes unbroken. Packing supplies on horses or mules is almost a lost art, but packing knocked down buildings is a specialty of Quinn's original ability.
A spike camp has been placed under Thunderbolt peak and a crew is engaged in erecting concrete piers for the tower. This lookout station when completed will serve a big inland region at the head of the Little Blackfoot river and the upper Boulder river and lowland drainages.
Mike Quinn also packed the supplies for the Haystack lookout in the Deer Lodge forest last year. These are tough jobs, but Quinn likes the game for he says 'the tuffer the better.'" (The Independent Record)
July 3, 1938: "Both Haystack and Thunderbolt lookouts have been manned in preparation for prevention control. The Thunderbolt lookout is a new 20-foot structure completed last fall by the Thunderbolt CCC camp." (Montana Standard)
Janruary 16, 1966: "Completion of a new fire lookout tower on Jack Mountain north of Basin. The new tower replaced the old, unsafe lookout station on Thunderbolt Mountain, which was removed." (Montana Standard-Post)
