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Fort Benton rests along the mighty Missouri River. Founded in 1846, it's the oldest town in Montana. During its first century, Fort Benton would become a springboard for trade as goods would be offloaded at the navigable end of the Missouri River and transported west by wagon. Flood control and other initiatives in the 1940s rendered Sioux City the new head of navigation on the Missouri, as the Great Northern railroad would become the primary means of transportation to the community. Today, the...
Two particular flowering plants are the toast of late spring and summer in Montana. In the mountain forests and openings of northwestern Montana, beargrass – the official flower of Glacier National Park – struts its stuff along roads and highways, as well as throughout the wilderness areas in northwest Montana. Meanwhile, the sturdy yucca stands guard over the rolling land and river breaks east of the mountains. Both plants, so similar yet so different, are symbolic of the land they grow on....
David Alt, author and a retired professor of geology at the University of Montana, explains why gold was found in Grasshopper Creek and the surrounding gulches. "At Bannack, as in many gold mining districts, much of the production came fast and early from bonanza deposits in stream placers. Early miners working the gravels in the streambed skimmed the cream off the district, leaving the hardest work and leanest pickings for those who came later. That happens because streams concentrate gold as...
When the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis in September 1806, fur trappers already were on their way to the new country. In North Dakota, after meeting a group of trappers heading upriver, the Corps' John Colter left the expedition and returned to the country he fondly recalled. In 1808, Colter and John Potts were trapping at the three forks when they encountered Blackfeet hunters and warriors. Potts was killed, and Colter was given a chance to escape. The Blackfeet took his clothes and a...
A labyrinth of channels, willow bottoms, islands and a general mix of wetlands interact to piece together the headwaters of the Missouri River. The point where the three forks – the Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison rivers – join as one, the great Missouri River begins an odyssey, heading out as having had the starring role in the creation of a state. As a route of western expansion, the Missouri River had few equals. Missouri Headwaters State Park, at the three forks, documents the river's ill...
South of Swan Peak, Lion Creek Pass offers another important route into the Bob Marshall Wilderness by way of Palisades and Little Salmon creeks. The route up the Swan-face side travels through beautiful stands of giant cedars. Farther down range, Smith Creek Pass is another course to the Swan summits and eventually into the South Fork country. The two trails join up with one coming over Lions Creek Pass to Little Salmon Creek. Just east of Condon, the second highest pinnacle in the Bob...
It took more than 60 years to create Glacier National Park, which is the foundation of the much larger natural system called the Crown of the Continent that we study and celebrate today. The events that led to the formation of the park and the surrounding ecosystem are regarded today as the bedrock of the conservation movement in America. What follows then is a timeline as we see it: 1849 – George Bird Grinnell born in Brooklyn, N.Y. – Sept. 20, 1849. George Bird Grinnell was the single mos...
At a recent book signing, a gentleman who knew quite a bit about the Judith Basin country explained how Utica, a small town in the basin on the road into the Little Belt Mountains, received its name. He mentioned that one of the early arrivals onto that landscape thought folks would have to be crazy to live there. (We can't figure out why, as it's a beautiful piece of geography, but perhaps he showed up in the winter when strong winds were blowing and piling up drifts of snow). With that notion...
Call it 670 miles – or perhaps more precisely 674 miles – but either way, the Yellowstone River remains the nation's longest undammed waterway. It's a great river that meanders through some of the finest mountain and prairie topography on the planet – peaks reaching past 12,000 feet in elevation, the largest high-mountain lake on the continent, dense evergreen forests, buttes, colorful badlands, deep canyons, sweet-smelling sage and juniper covered hills. A good portion of this wondrous river...
Do you sometimes think the state is being inundated with new ways and we are losing the real Montana? In some places perhaps yes, but most of the state is still the Montana we have always known and perceived. It is only in a small percentage of the state's mass where this change has actually taken place. The last census showed Montana, the fourth-largest state in the nation in terms of landmass, as having 989,415 folks residing within its borders. We use the 2010 census, as it provides the most...
Have you ever wondered how certain Montana places, rivers and towns got their unusual or just plain unfathomable names? Thanks to the incoming railroad across the top of the state, towns along the Hi-Line were named by the ingenious method of having a blindfolded railway worker stop a spinning globe with his finger and whatever it pointed to became the town's name. Hence the cosmopolitan flair given to communities like Malta and Glasgow. How about the Yaak? Well, it's an Indian word, most likely...
With winter gripping Montana, let us point out that the national record for cold in the lower 48 states – 70 degrees below zero – was documented right here in Montana at 2 a.m. on Jan. 20, 1954, on the west side of Roger's Pass near Helena. It's also worthwhile to mention that the chilliest time of any day is just prior to sunrise, so there's a good chance that by 6 a.m. it was significantly colder, but minus 70 was the thermometer's lowest mark. So we were close to and may have even have tied t...
“Colorado is high, having more peaks within its borders than any other state. Wyoming is wide, with the breadth of the plains between the Bighorns and the Grand Tetons. California is handsome, with a splendor of success. It takes all three adjectives to describe Montana.” In 1941, Donald Curloss Peattie, a naturalist of the 1920s through the 1950s, included these words in his book “The Road of a Naturalist.” In 1943, Montana newsman and writer Joseph Kinsey Howard took the three descrip...
It seems that this year much of Montana is experiencing a tough winter but it’s actually not. We are just getting back to winter after last year’s weird spell. Temperature readings haven’t gone wild – yet. No reporting stations have recorded 50 below or colder and the coldest known low during January’s first week was 46 below Fahrenheit. Twenty to 30 below was more prevalent in the past. Stories abound about conditions changing quickly and in a pronounced way. Montana holds the national record for cold with a 70-degrees-below-zero reading near...
Call it 670 miles or perhaps more precisely 674 miles, but either way, the Yellowstone River remains the nation’s longest undammed waterway. It’s a great river that gathers some of the finest mountain and prairie topography on the planet as it passes peaks reaching 12,000 feet in elevation, the largest high-mountain lake on the continent, dense evergreen forests, buttes, colorful badlands, deep canyons and sweet-smelling sage and juniper covered hills. A good portion of this wondrous river flows in Wyoming, but Montana claims most of it and...
In 1897, President Grover Cleveland established the Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve under the provisions of the Forest Reserve Act. At that time, the reserves were administered by the Department of the Interior. In 1905, the Forest Service was created along with the Department of Agriculture and in 1907 the Forest Reserves became known as National Forests. Until 1910, Glacier National Park was part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest Reserve; then the area was given national park status. On Au...
