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 U M M E R 2 0 2 2 88 imate- ly 1.4 miles from the trailhead. The trail crested in a high meadow flanked by towering pines, passing breaks in the trees that gave way to sweeping views of the dense forest sprawled out below. Up until fairly recently, this portion of the route was a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) roadway that was illegally expand- ed in 1981 by Robert Lynn, the now-former owner of Crow Creek Falls. At the time, the falls were part of the Hawkeye Placer, a 20-acre mining claim established in 1924 under the General Mining Act of 1872. The claim changed hands many times over the decades until Lynn, a miner from Columbia Falls, purchased the land, USFS Biologist Jodie Canfield explained in a 2004 article titled, "The Crown Jewel Comes Home." By that time, the USFS had already banned the use of motorized vehicles in the sections of the Helena National Forest surrounding the claim. Although Lynn filed for permits to divert the falls and to blast a road to his mining site, he grew impatient waiting on the government to render their decisions and ultimately took it upon himself to proceed with his plans without their ap- proval. In addition to building the road, Lynn used dynamite to blast a hole into the rock beside the top of the falls and diverted the creek through the hole via a head gate. Lynn was arrested and fined numerous times in the years that followed due to his flagrant disregard of the law and various court orders against him. The claim never produced the golden jackpot he'd had his heart set on, leaving him desolate and unable to pay his debts by the time 1990 rolled around. Local citizens banned together in the decade that followed to raise awareness about the decimated falls in an effort to gath- er funds to restore the land and to turn it over to the USFS. The American Land Conservancy (ALC) purchased the site in 2002, paving the way for Lynn's old mining equipment to be hauled out. Within two weeks, the team of local and govern- ment workers transformed the area from a desolate junkyard into an oasis befitting of the falls' "crown jewel" moniker. Helena National Forest purchased the 20-acre parcel from the ALC two years later. The story of Crow Falls' recorded history resonated in the back of my mind as I descended the steep final quarter-mile of the trail and set my eyes on the cascade for the first time. The water tumbled over the edge of the towering cliffside, catching slivers of sunlight and tossing out a glittering spray as it broke over the rocks and plummeted into the emerald pool below. Just as I was beginning to believe this enchantingly pris- tine section of the universe could have never looked any different than it did at that moment, I spotted the darkened mine entrance scarring the mountainside near a massive rock cairn situated beside the rushing water. Humans had been here after all, and some wounds don't heal without leaving a mark. CROW CREEK

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