CICERO PEAK
Custer County - Black Hills National Forest - 4S-5E-30
July 22, 1939: "E. A. Snow, supervisor of the Harney national forest, said a 30-foot steel tower is to be erected on Cicero peak to replace the old wooden one. This peak is 6,300 feet high and is manned during the entire season. Elmer Jorgenson is the lookout. This tower gives a view into Custer state park, the south and east sides of the forest, and the Flynn creek basin which is a difficult area for the other lookouts to cover." (Rapid City Journal)
August 16, 1941: "Park Kent, lookout at Cicero Peak has been transferred to Harney peak as lookout, taking the place of Howard Culver who, with his family, is leaving for California.
Bryon Hazeltine has been sent to Cicero peak for the balance of the season, officials of the Harney forest said this week." (The Rapid City Journal)
November 2, 1957: "Eleanor Runyon, former Chadron resident, and Robert Lewis of Custer recently exchanged their marriage vows at the Trinity Lutheran Church, Riverton, Wyo. Lewis is ranger with the US Forest Service, in the Custer district. Mrs. Lewis has spent the past three summers as an employe at Cicero Peak Lookout near Custer. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis will reside in Custer." (Rapid City Journal)
March 9, 1961: "Withdrawal from appropriation, except under mineral leasing laws, has been ordered on 550.69 acres scattered through the Black Hills National Forest.
Most of the land is in tracts of 10 to 40 acres used for fire lookouts." Included in the order: Cicero Peak lookout. (Rapid City Journal)
April 30, 1965: "The U. S. Forest Service here has announced that a fire lookout has been assigned to Cicero Peak for duty during daylight hours." (Rapid City Journal)
July 27, 1967: "Two spot lightning caused fires occurred in the same area five miles southwest of here Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Forest Service, the Cicero Peak Lookout reported a fire at 6:20 p.m. and the second one at 6:40 p.m. One was a snag and the other was a green tree. Both were extinguished upon arrival of the Custer District Fire Crew." (Rapid City Journal)
April 19, 1968: "Lookouts have been manned on Cicero Peak and Elk Mountain, starting two weeks ago." (Rapid City Journal)
1973: The final season of staffing the tower.
October 1980: The tower with catwalk, minus the cab, loaded onto a flatbed trailer and moved off the mountain. Later the new owner sold the tower to Marine Life at Rapid City for an observation tower. The attraction was closed down in 1997.