Distinctly Montana Magazine

37 w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m valleys with the sweet smell of burning wood. Just two decades ago, there were twenty-eight sawmills in western Montana. Today there are only four. Former times saw logging trucks rumbling down Highway 200 loaded with hulking saw logs. But timber has given way to tourism. As 200 snakes its way along the Clark Fork River, those bygone teepee burner vestiges of the hardscrabble logging era are hard to detect by most drivers unschooled in the state's history. Still, large expanses of ancient old-growth for- ests cloak the mountainsides, meccas for recreationalists like cross-country skiers, hikers, hunters and snowmobilers. The tiny community of Lincoln stakes its economic claim on tourists and truckers with the usual blend of highway depart- ment, Forest Service and school district thrown in. This is snow- mobile central in the winter, with as many snowmobiles buzzing up and down 200 as there are motor vehicles. Waylaid motorists often hang out there before tackling the icy Rogers Pass, await- ing the sand and snowplow trucks to forge a path. In the sum- mer, it is a jumping off base for exploration of the massive Bob Marshall Wilderness, just to the north. "I always use Lincoln as a stopping place when I travel over Rogers Pass. You know, fuel, snacks, bathrooms, maybe lunch at Lambkins," says Ed Harper, a longtime produce truck driver who lives in Great Falls. Spiraling off Rogers Pass on the Continental Divide, the high- way spills out onto the broad reach of the central Montana plains, urged on by the relentless tailwinds. Only the lonely four-way stop signs at Bowman's Corner, somewhere around milepost 238, slow the pace eastward. More than just changed landscapes await the traveler entering central Montana. It is as if you need to open your arms and draw in the wide-open vis- tas. Black Angus cattle mingle freely with Minuteman missile silos. Elongated strips of wheat in the state's "golden triangle" produce bounteous crops that feed millions. And it is here that today's modern highway intersects with the now invisible his- toric Mullan Road, Montana's first official wagon road complet- ed in 1862 between Fort Benton and Walla Walla, Washington. Somewhere near Sun River, 200's pavement crosses over the old one-hundred-sixty-two-year-old roadbed, mingling new and old travel routes. The traditional wheat farming and cultured landscapes arise dramatically upon the approach to the central part of the state. "Producers" is the term used to describe farmers and ranchers in these parts. And it is here that a major paradigm shift is tak- ing place as the surroundings morph into an almost surreal and frightening collision of industrial and agricultural. The emerg- END TO END, HIGHWAY 200 STRETCHES 703.7 MILES AND TRACES A LINE STRAIGHT THROUGH THE CENTER OF MONTANA'S SOUL.

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