Initially, Congress determined this mountain crest line was to serve as the border between Montana and Idaho.Ī movement was growing in Edgerton’s domain to create a new territory (Montana). When Ohio congressman Sidney Edgerton was named Chief Justice of the Idaho Territory and reported to his post, he discovered that his new assignment was to cover only the eastern portion of the new territory. The Idaho Territory, established in 1863, included all of what is now Montana. Once embroiled in politics, the Continental Divide played an important part in Montana’s early history. It leaves our great state about three miles into Yellowstone National Park at 8,320 feet where Montana, Idaho and Wyoming join in a nondescript, flat, difficult to find timbered landscape.Įlevations along Montana’s Divide range from a low of 5,280 feet at Marias Pass near Glacier Park to 11,141 feet at the most southerly situated Eighteenmile Peak. With a spectacular start in the remote western reaches of Glacier National Park, at the 49th parallel of latitude where Alberta, British Columbia and Montana join, the northern most point of Montana’s Divide begins its run to the south at an elevation of 7,460 feet. Montana’s Divide respects no geologic structural dictate, but rather snakes at random through the high terrain of the state’s Northern Rocky Mountains.
The many Indian Nations inhabiting or migrating through what would become western Montana, knew the easiest crossings well and had used them for centuries as a passageway to the bison hunting grounds of the northern Great Plains. Pioneers pointing their wagon trains westward to the Oregon Country were unfamiliar with the land and viewed the imposing mountain crests as an immense obstacle. Snow melt and rain falling on the west side of Montana’s Divide powers the many creeks and rivers leading to the Clark Fork and the fast-moving Snake rivers, each flowing to meet the Columbia that in turn discharges its flow into Pacific Ocean. Sky born liquid landing on the lee or sunrise side of the continental Divide eventually makes its way to the Missouri River and from there to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf of Mexico. Bestowing order to every drop of moisture that falls on it, when the spring’s sun turns the Divide’s blanket of snow into rivulets of water, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico can count on more volume. And, the USA Continental Divide National Scenic Trail allows folks to trek the 3,100 miles from Canada to Mexico following the actual divide as closely as possible. This Continental Divide, that gives Montana distinct water sheds, is part of a greater hemispheric divide stretching from the Brooks Range of northern Alaska south through the Andes to almost the farthest tip of South America. Betsy Garland on the CD Trail at Flesher Pass | Rick and Susie Graetz That distinction belongs to the earliest trickles of Hellroaring Creek flowing out of the eastern end of the Centennial Mountains and the Divide into the Red Rock River, a good distance to the east. He was however, mistaken about reaching the most distant waters of the Missouri. When he walked through today’s Lemhi Pass, Lewis became the first known white man to cross the Continental Divide.
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