LKHORN MOUNTAINS -- The climb takes place two weeks too early. The snowfields are still deep and wide, and the north face of Casey Peak above 8,000 feet is capped with drifts.

But there's hope that the top is near. Up through the trees a scree field cuts into the blue morning sky. Dead snags stand twisted between rocks. Pieces of fractured wood, milled long ago, suggest a human presence.

This was the whole point in coming -- reaching the top of Casey Peak for another look at the crumbling fire tower that lingers here. A rubble foundation anchored into the mountain is all that remains of the old structure.

Nearly everything else is gone and the debris lies scattered across the peak. Planks of wood. Bits of glass. It looks as though the tower took a direct hit from a mortar, or lightning, or a fist of wind. Even the stone foundation is beginning to crack.

However the lookout met its demise, its day has come. Built in the 1930s, the structure stood watch over the Elkhorn Mountains and offered unfettered views of the Big Belts across Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

But while the views to the north and east are grand, those to the south and west are less spectacular. Someone, it seems, didn't do their homework, and speculation abounds that the tower was built on the wrong mountain.

"It's something of a mystery," said Vicki MacLean, a retired Forest Service employee and forest historian. "It appears that maybe it was built in the wrong place."

Information about the old lookout is hard to find. MacLean notes the local stories that say the tower was intended for neighboring High Peak, not Casey Peak where it currently stands.

A 1937 inspection by the Forest Service also listed the tower's problems. Among them, the structure was placed "too far forward" on the Beaver Creek side of the mountain, but even so, it still failed to cover Beaver Creek.

The report also said the tower failed to cover the McClellan Creek side with any satisfaction. McClellan Creek, the inspection adds, is more subject to lightening strikes and used more often by people. It is, in fact, the main route up the mountain.

"We decided the lookout house would better serve if moved about 75 feet to the northwest of the present location," the 1937 report concludes. "Tower material is a long way off and expensive to bring up. The house, if set over, could be placed on a rock wall, plenty of rock on hand."

Locals have said the lookout was rarely used. MacLean agrees, saying it saw little service before it was abandoned some time in the 1940s or early 1950s.

The deterioration has been slow and ongoing ever since. A photo snapped in 1991 shows the structure with a roof on it. Something of a catwalk also remained. Both are now gone, as is much of the wood.

"There's no record of fires being reported from it or who worked up there," said MacLean. "It covers some country that Strawberry Lookout doesn't cover."

Lookouts like this one come and go. They fall victim to time and technology. They are punished by the seasons and crumble with neglect. And there's the wind, which tore the roof off the Stonewall Mountain Lookout this winter.

Snowmobilers discovered the damage in January. If not for an intrepid effort by the Lincoln District Range to expedite repairs (and spend the money to do so), the tower would have gone the route of so many others by crumbling into obscurity.

"Surprising, there was no damage to the structure as a result of the snow," said District Ranger Amber Kamps. "Because of the winds, the inside of the lookout was frozen solid, but not filling up with snow."

Efforts to repair the wind-torn tower on Stonewall Mountain continue. A new permanent roof, along with new wiring and supports for the fire finder, won't be completed until fall, just before the snow flies.

But at least the winds have left something to repair. Fires, it turns out, aren't as forgiving, a case proven on July 29, 2003, when the Snow Talon Fire burned the Silver King Lookout north 0f Lincoln to the ground.

In its golden years, Silver King offered endless views of the surrounding wilderness. It provided lookouts like Donna Hawkins the high point she needed to raise the alarm in the event of a fire.

Hawkins staffed the tower from 1977 to 1980 using an old hand crank telephone to communicate with nearby lookouts. A fire in 1978 destroyed the phone lines, which were never replaced. Radios had become the norm, their signals boosted by repeaters placed on Silver King and Stonewall mountains.

"All the summers I worked up there, I only had two sets of unexpected visitors," Hawkins told me in 2003 after the tower burned down. "Very few people actually hiked up to the lookout for the heck of it."

5 High Peaks near Helena

>Red Mountain: 8,150 feet

The views from the top of Red Mountain are worth the trip. Take in the Scapegoat Wilderness to the north and the Flint Creek Range to the west. The trail climbs the mountain's south face through timber and patches of huckleberry. There's a bubbling creek and a sagging log cabin and plenty of photographic delights.

>Casey Peak: 8,499 feet

While Casey Peak isn't the tallest mountain in the bunch, it is the hardest to reach. Getting to its base requires a three mile trek to Casey Meadows, which in itself is worth the trip. From here, it's a steady and often steep climb up the ridge. The views from the top are fantastic, with Canyon Ferry and the Helena Valley below.

>Elkhorn Peak: 9,314 feet

Of all the high points around Helena, this one is the easiest to reach thanks to an abandoned road that begins in Elkhorn and climbs up the mountain to an old mine. When the road ends, it's an easy scamper to the summit, which is marked by a rock cairn and a log book, so long as no one has taken it. Great views of the Elkhorns and the Tobacco Roots to the south.

>Crow Peak: 9,414 feet

Crow is the tallest point in the Elkhorn Range. The back side of the mountain falls away sharply (but not as steep as the Absarokas). Some 500 feet below, Tizer Lake shimmers deep and blue on a summer day. The views to the east seem never-ending. Staying close to Helena, you can't get much higher than this.

>Mount Baldy: 9,478

If you wait until the snow melts, you can practically drive up Mount Baldy using Duck Creek Road. The hike from the road follows a rocky ridge up the mountain. White Sulphur Springs sits to the east and Canyon Ferry to the west. The Tobacco Root Mountains, the Bridger Mountains and the Gallatin Range can all be seen.

Reporter Martin Kidston: mkidston@helenair.com 447-4086