Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 36 Heat from the rising sun crept across our leather jackets, slowly warming our bodies and pulling the coolness from the morning dew up into the sky as we began our steady ascent through Rock Creek Canyon. The roadway soon folded in layers before us, climbing in elevation with every hairpin turn. Separated from the canyon floor by merely a strip of steel guardrail, the spectacular pan- orama of untamed wilderness spilled out below as we rose—rugged, pris- tine, and impossibly glorious. The forest of lodgepole pines un- veiled more of the Beartooth's soaring peaks and stark-white glaciers as the serpentine strip of asphalt wove its way up the mountainside. We marveled at the tumbling waters of upper Rock Creek now far below us while gazing in wonder at the expansive canyon and the sweeping tundra of Silver Run Plateau and Hellroaring Plateau. The curves of the tightly-curled switchbacks still bear the names of the men who constructed them back in the early 1930s. Names like Frozen Man Curve, Deadman's Curve, Mae West Curve, and Primal Curve give us a glimpse into how those workers must have viewed the massive feat of en- gineering they were helping to undertake. THE BIRTH OF THE BITTERROOT, AND THE SURVIVAL OF TWO CITIES The Rock Creek Valley and the Beartooth Mountains were part of the Apsaalooke (Crow) Indians' aboriginal territory. Indigenous peoples traveled through the mountain range for at least 12,000 years before early explorers, trappers, and miners fol- lowed suit. In 1881, while traveling to Yellowstone National Park, Civil War general Phillip Sheridan and a 120-man escort trekked across a por- tion of what would later become the path of the roadway. The Rocky Fork Coal Company set up a coal mine operation at the foot of the Beartooths in 1886, which became the birthplace of present-day Red Lodge. Meanwhile, miners struck gold on the other side of the moun- tains, leading to the establishment of Cooke City. Just over 4,500 people called Red Lodge home by the 1920s, but an increasing reliance on natural gas, cheaper and easier-to-access coal de- posits in other areas, and low over- all coal prices caused the area's coal mines to close their doors during the early part of the de- cade. Unemployment rates soared, and the city was on the verge of collapse. Cooke City's silver, copper, and gold mines were boom- ing, but finding a way to profitably ship ore out of the min- ing district had become a problem. Mine owners had little choice but to haul the ore over a 60-mile road to the railroad terminal at Gardiner—a route that took them through a sec- tion of Yellowstone National Park. The transports were de- stroying the road and interfering with tourist traffic, so all parties involved had a vested interest in finding an alterna- tive solution. For much of the 1920s, proponents from both Cooke City and Red Lodge lobbied the U.S. Congress to fund a new BEARTOOTH HIGHWAY Visitors came from as far as CALIFORNIA AND MAINE TO BE AMONG THE FIRST TO TAKE A TRIP OVER THE TOP OF THE WORLD ON JUNE 14, 1936. AN AVERAGE OF 400 VEHICLES WERE TRAVELING THE NEW ROADWAY EACH WEEKDAY BY 1939.

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