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125-850: The Mission Mountains or Mission Range are a range of the Rocky Mountains located in northwestern Montana in the United States. They lie chiefly in Lake County and Missoula County and are south and east of Flathead Lake and west of the Swan Range . On the east side of the range is the Swan River Valley and on the west side the Mission Valley. The highest point in the Mission Mountains

250-631: A 'federal' national park in the Northern Trench. 1998 - After several years of round table discussions The British Columbia Government takes first legislative steps to establish a 'provincial' Muskwa-Kechika Management Area [3] It covers an area considerably larger than the floor of the Trench and its immediate tributaries. 1999 - Karsten Heuer completes the final section of the Y2Y hike (Yellowstone to Yukon) at Lower Post [4] 2000 - Extension of

375-585: A European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, where they were called " montagnes de Roche ". Another name given to the place by the Cree is ᐊᓭᓂᐓᒉ Aseniwuche . The Rocky Mountains are the easternmost portion of the expansive North American Cordillera . They are often defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the headwaters of

500-472: A few cat trails for fire, outfitters, or logging. It is due to several turns of fate, and strategic administrative decisions since 1824, that the most natural land transportation corridor in northern British Columbia has been left in a wild state. On many government maps produced since 1897, indications of a passable trail have been published. However, with changes in the terrain caused by beaver dams or forest fires, and despite maintenance by guide-outfitters,

625-579: A growing weekend and permanent recreational population. Hunting, fishing, off-roading, and camping will continue to be attractive pastimes. These include guided activities and individual pursuit of the area. The generous mix of low elevation, good climate, fine scenery, diverse recreation and resort accommodation has fostered a vacation-based real estate industry for communities and rural areas surrounding Cranbrook , Windermere , Invermere , Radium , and Golden . There are many other local unincorporated communities and post offices. The Trench has hosted only

750-862: A marker left by Black and report it to historic Fort Halkett on the Liard River. [1] 1831 - John Macleod of the HBC records the mouth of the Kechika River emptying out of the northern end of the Trench into the Liard near the BC-Yukon border. 1872 - Capt. William F. Butler ascends part of the Finlay River and records both the Fox River and Fox Lake to the north (Ft. Ware / Kwadacha was not yet established.) 1897 to 1898 – The Canadian government sends

875-523: A mixture of white pine, fir, and spruce that appear as shrub-like krummholz . Finally, rivers and canyons can create a unique forest zone in more arid parts of the mountain range. The Rocky Mountains are an important habitat for a great deal of well-known wildlife, such as wolves , elk , moose , mule and white-tailed deer , pronghorn , mountain goats , bighorn sheep , badgers , black bears , grizzly bears , coyotes , lynxes , cougars , and wolverines . North America's largest herds of elk are in

1000-552: A police patrol under Inspector Moodie to map a possible supply route from the Peace River to the Yukon - specifically Dawson City. The patrol, assumed to have perished, eventually arrived at Fort Selkirk . They proved the viability of the route and produced a surviving map of it. (Yukon Archives) 1898 – McGregor's book The Klondike Rush Though Edmonton summarizes various sources (papers) saying up to 45 parties were reported along

1125-622: A road route over Sifton Pass. 1934 - Charles Bedaux , a noted international workplace management consultant (time and motion studies) leads and finances the Bedaux Expedition - formally known as the Bedaux Canadian Subarctic Expedition. While his advance scouts arrive at McDame Post near Good Hope Lake, the leader and entourage abandon their mission at Driftpile Creek due to fatigue, lack of horse feed, and impending winter. The controversial adventure

1250-893: A similar relationship to tourism promotions by the Great Northern Railway . While settlers filled the valleys and mining towns, conservation and preservation ethics began to take hold. U.S. President Benjamin Harrison established several forest reserves in the Rocky Mountains in 1891–1892. In 1905, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt extended the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve to include the area now managed as Rocky Mountain National Park . Economic development began to center on mining, forestry , agriculture, and recreation , as well as on

1375-572: A spur line which extends northward up the southern Trench between Cranbrook and Golden. This serves to interconnect the southerly rail route of the Crowsnest Pass to the CPR mainline through Rogers Pass . Today it carries Crowsnest coal to Tsawwassen for export. A southerly rail-link through Yahk enables freight shipments into Idaho and the Western US. Tourism has become an active force in

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1500-693: Is McDonald Peak at 9,820 feet (2,990 m). The range is named for its proximity to the Jesuit St. Ignatius Mission , established in the mid-19th century in what is today St. Ignatius, Montana . The Mission Mountains are composed largely of what is called "Belt Rock" from the Belt Supergroup . The sedimentary rocks in this group formed between 1.47 and 1.4 billion years ago in the Belt Basin. The roughly circular basin collected sediments from surrounding areas for millions of years. The basin

1625-578: Is clearly visible by air and satellite/ remote sensing and is easily discernible to those ascending any of the mountains or ridges lining it. The Trench is drained by four major river basins : the Columbia , Fraser , Peace and Liard . Two reservoirs of the Columbia River Treaty fill much of its length today - Lake Koocanusa and Lake Kinbasket . A further British Columbia power initiative created Lake Williston . Rivers that follow

1750-588: Is closely aligned with the Tintina Trench near the British Columbia-Yukon border at 60 degrees north latitude, and the two trenches could arguably be classified as one and the same - or 'extensions' of each other. The Tintina Trench extends further north-westward through the Yukon into Alaska . The visible expression of the two trenches is lost where they plunge under the boreal forests of

1875-502: Is found in the southern trench is not considered significant. The extensional faulting was nonetheless substantial, having extended as deep as 13.5 km (8.4 mi). The southern trench also differs from the northern trench in that it is more sinuous and is asymmetrical in cross-section (perpendicular to its length). The western side of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench is more subdued and irregular than

2000-794: Is in the Rocky Mountains and designates the line at which waters flow either to the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. Triple Divide Peak (2,440 m or 8,020 ft) in Glacier National Park is so named because water falling on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River , which has its outlet on

2125-626: Is managed under the Wilderness Act of 1964 . The southern end of the Mission Mountains includes a large grizzly bear protection area which is usually closed to hikers from July thru September. This allows the bears to feed on lady bugs and cut worms, and attempts to keep bear-human contact to a minimum. The Mission Mountains have a wide range of flora and fauna . Mule deer , elk , white-tailed deer , mountain goats , moose , black bears , grizzly bears , coyote , wolverine , lynxes , bobcats and mountain lions have all been spotted in

2250-706: Is natural gas that arises from coal, either through bacterial action or through exposure to high temperature. Coalbed methane supplies 7 percent of the natural gas used in the U.S. The largest coalbed methane sources in the Rocky Mountains are in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. These two basins are estimated to contain 38 trillion cubic feet of gas. Coalbed methane can be recovered by dewatering

2375-453: Is over by the end of the month. Winter recreation is best in the spring months. June is wet, but between February and May one can do some great winter camping, snowshoeing and skiing. The terrain, especially in the south is very steep and trails are not always kept clear. The 1.5-billion-year-old mudstone is very brittle and not a very reliable handhold. In the daytime it can be very hot, but nights are very cold, so pack accordingly. Because

2500-743: Is primarily a byproduct of geologic faulting . The Trench separates the Rocky Mountains on its east from the Columbia Mountains and the Cassiar Mountains on its west. It also skirts part of the McGregor Plateau area of the Nechako Plateau sub-area of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia . It is up to 25 km (16 mi) wide, if measured peak-to-peak, and varies in valley relief, but

2625-541: Is the subject of a 1995 Bedaux film biography titled Champagne Safari . 1942 - February a final decision was reached regarding the A, B, and C routes for a northern Highway. It will connect the North West Staging Route airfields and bypass the Northern Trench for the joint Canada-Alaska Highway Alcan Highway , alternately Alaska Highway . The three routes had been the subject of considerable economic competition between governments and communities since

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2750-880: Is within the Flathead Indian Reservation and under the management of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation . Most of the range is also part of the Flathead National Forest, under which the Mission Mountains Wilderness is designated as a wilderness area. The wilderness area is in the Swan Lake Ranger District. The 73,877-acre wilderness (29,897 ha) was designation on Jan. 4, 1975 and

2875-668: The 49th parallel north as the international boundary west from Lake of the Woods to the "Stony Mountains"; the UK and the US agreed to what has since been described as "joint occupancy" of lands further west to the Pacific Ocean. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues, the Oregon dispute , was deferred until a later time. In 1819, Spain ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to

3000-479: The Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests . The status of most species in the Rocky Mountains is unknown, due to incomplete information. European-American settlement of the mountains has adversely impacted native species. Examples of some species that have declined include western toads , greenback cutthroat trout , white sturgeon , white-tailed ptarmigan , trumpeter swan , and bighorn sheep. In

3125-547: The Apache , Arapaho , Bannock , Blackfoot , Cheyenne , Coeur d'Alene , Kalispel , Crow Nation , Flathead , Shoshone , Sioux , Ute , Kutenai (Ktunaxa in Canada), Sekani , Dunne-za , and others. Paleo-Indians hunted the now-extinct mammoth and ancient bison (an animal 20% larger than modern bison) in the foothills and valleys of the mountains. Like the modern tribes that followed them, Paleo-Indians probably migrated to

3250-810: The Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Human population is not very dense in the Rockies, with an average of four people per square kilometer and few cities with over 50,000 people. However, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The forty-year statewide increases in population range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah and Colorado. The populations of several mountain towns and communities have doubled in

3375-709: The Bull Lake Glaciation , which began about 150,000 years ago, and the Pinedale Glaciation , which perhaps remained at full glaciation until 15,000–20,000 years ago. All of these geological processes exposed a complex set of rocks at the surface. For example, volcanic rock from the Paleogene and Neogene periods (66 million – 2.6 million years ago) occurs in the San Juan Mountains and in other areas. Millennia of severe erosion in

3500-608: The Canadian Pacific Railway eventually followed the Kicking Horse and Rogers Passes to the Pacific Ocean. Canadian railway officials also convinced Parliament to set aside vast areas of the Canadian Rockies as Jasper , Banff , Yoho , and Waterton Lakes National Parks , laying the foundation for a tourism industry which thrives to this day. Glacier National Park (MT) was established with

3625-902: The Canadian Rockies . The eastern edge of the Rockies rises dramatically above the Interior Plains of central North America, including the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado , the Front Range of Colorado, the Wind River Range and Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming , the Absaroka - Beartooth ranges and Rocky Mountain Front of Montana and the Clark Range of Alberta . Central ranges of

3750-917: The Canning River and the Firth River across the Alaska - Yukon border. Its southernmost point is near the Albuquerque area adjacent to the Rio Grande rift and north of the Sandia–Manzano Mountain Range . Being the easternmost portion of the North American Cordillera , the Rockies are distinct from the tectonically younger Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada , which both lie farther to its west. The Rockies formed 55 million to 80 million years ago during

3875-455: The Climax mine, near Leadville, Colorado , was the largest producer of molybdenum in the world. Molybdenum is used in heat-resistant steel in such things as cars and planes. The Climax mine employed over 3,000 workers. The Coeur d'Alene mine of northern Idaho produces silver, lead, and zinc. Canada's largest coal mines are near Fernie, British Columbia and Sparwood , British Columbia; additional coal mines exist near Hinton, Alberta , and in

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4000-440: The Columbia District for Britain. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley , a region of the Rocky Mountain Trench near present-day Radium Hot Springs , British Columbia, then traveled south. Despite such efforts, in 1846, Britain ceded all claim to Columbia District lands south of the 49th parallel to the United States; as resolution to the Oregon boundary dispute by the Oregon Treaty . Thousands passed through

4125-404: The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are required to carry a valid tribal lands-usage permit, which can easily be obtained at local sporting goods stores. The pass is good for one year and allows access to the east side of the Mission Range, stretches of the Flathead River , and other areas. The Mission Mountains have several overlapping protection areas. Much of the Mission Mountain Range

4250-417: The Hart Ranges . The Copley Range of the Arctic Pacific Lakes Provincial Park forms the drainage divide between the northerly Parsnip - Finlay - Peace system into the Arctic Ocean (via the Mackenzie River ) and the southwesterly McGregor - Fraser system into the Pacific Ocean . The northern end of the Columbia Mountains at ~54°N near Prince George , British Columbia , where the Fraser River leaves

4375-399: The Laramide orogeny , in which a number of plates began sliding underneath the North American plate . The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys. At the end of the last ice age , humans began inhabiting

4500-416: The Liard River and east of the Rocky Mountain Trench , and do not extend into Yukon , Northwest Territories or central British Columbia . They are divided into three main groups: the Muskwa Ranges , Hart Ranges (collectively called the Northern Rockies ) and Continental Ranges . Other more northerly mountain ranges of the eastern Canadian Cordillera continue beyond the Liard River valley, including

4625-420: The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area into the Northern Trench. Much of the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench's furthest reach is within this British Columbia Protected Area. Significant exposure is given to the M-KMA in the November 2008 National Geographic Magazine as a follow-up to their partial funding of a recent expedition to Gataga Pass. [5] In 2009 context the Northern Trench could have, and might yet, become

4750-469: The NAWAPA proposal by Parsons Engineering Group - would see flooding of the portions of the Trench as part of a continental-scale water diversion. 1971 - Sir Ranulph Fiennes descends the Trench from Kechika mouth - mostly on foot, partly solo as part of his circum-polar expedition [2] . For this and other feats he is later recorded by Guinness Book of Records as the World's 'Greatest Living Explorer.' 1981 - 'Skook' Davidson; long time outfitter proposes

4875-447: The Paleozoic , western North America lay underneath a shallow sea, which deposited many kilometers of limestone and dolomite . In the southern Rockies, near present-day Colorado, these ancestral rocks were disturbed by mountain building approximately 300 Ma , during the Pennsylvanian . This mountain-building produced the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. They consisted largely of Precambrian metamorphic rock forced upward through layers of

5000-405: The Pecos River , a tributary of the Rio Grande , in New Mexico. The Rockies vary in width from 110 to 480 kilometres (70 to 300 miles). The Rocky Mountains contain the highest peaks in central North America. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert in Colorado at 4,401 metres (14,440 feet) above sea level. Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 3,954 m (12,972 ft), is the highest peak in

5125-510: The Sawtooths in central Idaho. The Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these subranges from distinct ranges further to the west. In Canada, the western edge of the Rockies is formed by the huge Rocky Mountain Trench , which runs the length of British Columbia from its beginning as the Kechika Valley on the south bank of the Liard River , to the middle Lake Koocanusa valley in northwestern Montana. The Canadian Rockies are defined by Canadian geographers as everything south of

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5250-404: The Selwyn , Mackenzie and Richardson Mountains in Yukon as well as the British Mountains / Brooks Range in Alaska , but those are not officially recognized as part of the Rockies by the Geological Survey of Canada , although the Geological Society of America definition does consider them parts of the Rocky Mountains system as the "Arctic Rockies". The Continental Divide of the Americas

5375-430: The Wyoming Basin transformed intermountain basins into a relatively flat terrain. The Tetons and other north-central ranges contain folded and faulted rocks of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age draped above cores of Proterozoic and Archean igneous and metamorphic rocks ranging in age from 1.2 billion (e.g., Tetons) to more than 3.3 billion years ( Beartooth Mountains ). There are a wide range of environmental factors in

5500-535: The "Rockies", becoming the first Europeans to report on this uncharted mountain range. Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1764 – March 11, 1820) became the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1793. He found the upper reaches of the Fraser River and reached the Pacific coast of what is now Canada on July 20 of that year, completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico. He arrived at Bella Coola, British Columbia , where he first reached saltwater at South Bentinck Arm, an inlet of

5625-450: The 300 km (190 mi) natural route as The Trail of The Ancient Ones . They also call it the Davie Trail honoring David Braconnier, the founding chief of the community at Ware (Fort Ware - originally called Kwadacha which the HBC named Whitewater Post) 1797 - John Finlay records the forks of the Finlay and Parsnip Rivers and ventures part way up each river. The Finlay River later comes to bear his name. 1823 to 1825 - Samuel Black

5750-467: The Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Such sedimentary remnants were often tilted at steep angles along the flanks of the modern range; they are now visible in many places throughout the Rockies, and are shown along the Dakota Hogback , an early Cretaceous sandstone formation running along the eastern flank of the modern Rockies. Just after the Laramide orogeny, the Rockies were like Tibet : a high plateau, probably 6,000 metres (20,000 ft) above sea level. In

5875-427: The California and Alaska gold rushes combined and was important in the financing of the Union Army during the American Civil War . The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and Yellowstone National Park was established as the world's first national park in 1872. Meanwhile, a transcontinental railroad in Canada was originally promised in 1871. Though political complications pushed its completion to 1885,

6000-424: The Columbia at Castlegar, BC after a meander through the United States as the Kootenai River (US spelling). For convenience the Rocky Mountain Trench may be divided into two sections, the Northern Trench (between the Muskwa Ranges and Interior Mountains ) and the Southern Trench (between the Continental Ranges and Columbia Mountains ), separated by the northeastern portion of the Interior Plateau west of

6125-430: The Flathead and the Swan. In all, the whole process took around 100 million years. Three million years ago, at the end of the Cenozoic Era, western Montana would have been full of tall mountains, but it was the next geologic process that made them what they are today. Large glaciers began to form in the area 2–3 million years ago; this was the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch. Since then, ending just 10,000 years ago,

6250-418: The Fox, Parsnip and Finlay Rivers are part of the Peace River system. The Canoe River is a short tributary of the Columbia system, draining into Kinbasket Lake , a reservoir on the Columbia River. The Kootenai River, however, does not fully follow the Trench but exits Canada southwest via Lake Koocanusa reservoir to the Libby Dam . The Kootenay River (Canadian spelling) is a tributary of the Columbia , joining

6375-405: The HBC closes. Today the Kaska Dena Community of Fort Ware (Ware) remains as a full-time settlement. 1957 - Swedish industrial savant Axel Wenner-Gren advocates resource mega-developments for the Peace River area. Among his proposals he envisions a monorail up the Northern Trench. Some area proposals came to partial fruition but the monorail did not. 1960 to 1967 - The Government of BC declines

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6500-412: The Klondike Gold Rush. The A route was a Stikine option similar to Highway 37 of today. The B route favors the Trench option. The C route following the airfields east of the Rocky Mountains and then crossing to the west near the Liard River is the chosen route. 1942 - March 28 the American government initiates a highly secret survey. It was undertaken for the purpose of assessing a military railway link up

6625-454: The Liard Plain proximate to the small communities of Watson Lake, Yukon and Lower Post, BC. The highest point in the northern Trench is Sifton Pass at an elevation of about 1,010 m (3,310 ft) near the bend of Scarcity Creek. Right-lateral strike-slip movement of the Tintina Fault on the Tintina-Northern Rocky Mountain Trench may have begun during the middle Jurassic . The fastest rates of slip probably occurred during two pulses in

6750-409: The Mission Mountains and their surroundings have been shaped by water. The formation of the Flathead Lobe of the Alberta Cordilleran ice sheet is what set this history into motion. At its thickest points, the Flathead Lobe glacier may have extended 4,000 feet above the valley floor. The glacier reached hundreds of miles down the Rocky Mountain Trench , ending as far south as St. Ignatius, Montana . At

6875-420: The Mission Mountains strongly reflect work of the last few ice ages , the latest of those being just over 10,000 years ago. But the range is also the product of a much longer story, one that can be started with the breakup of the Pangaea super-continent. As the continents began to spread out, the North American Plate inched westward, grinding over and against the Pacific Plate as it went. This subduction of

7000-411: The Mission Range came on October 21, 1931 when 67,000 acres of land along the east side of the Mission Divide were classified as the Mission Mountains Primitive Area. The Great Pacific Railway Company owned 30 percent of this land at the time of the classification, which was exchanged over the course of years for other land in the Flathead National Forest . Further stories about the Mission Mountains and

7125-505: The Missions one finds the alpine larch . Found between the elevations of about 6,500 feet-7,000 feet this tough little tree can be found all over the range, twisted and tangled along high ridges and surrounding its peaks. A few major peaks in the Mission Mountains include: Daughter-of-the-Sun Mountain, Flat-Top, Glacier Peak, Gray Wolf Peak, Kakashe Mountain, McDonald Peak , Mount Calowahcan (formally Mt. Harding), Mountaineer Peak, Sonyelm, and West and East St. Mary's Peaks. Lakes found in

7250-430: The Native American cultures. Native American populations were extirpated from most of their historical ranges by disease, warfare, habitat loss (eradication of the bison), and continued assaults on their culture. In 1739, French fur traders Pierre and Paul Mallet, while journeying through the Great Plains, discovered a range of mountains at the headwaters of the Platte River , which local American Indian tribes called

7375-529: The Northern Rockies surrounding Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia . Abandoned mines with their wakes of mine tailings and toxic wastes dot the Rocky Mountain landscape. In one major example, eighty years of zinc mining profoundly polluted the river and bank near Eagle River in north-central Colorado. High concentrations of the metal carried by spring runoff harmed algae , moss , and trout populations. An economic analysis of mining effects at this site revealed declining property values, degraded water quality, and

7500-448: The Northern Rocky Mountain Trench or the Tintina Trench. 1949 - US Congress Public Law 391 authorises a location survey for a railway from Prince George to Fairbanks. Prince George Board of Trade advocates the Trench route - the B route. 1950 - October, Canadian Transport Minister Lionel Chevrier advocates the 1942 route in a secret document to Federal Cabinet. A budget of $ 750,000,000 is presented. 1953 - Whitewater Post or Kwadacha of

7625-432: The Northern Rocky Mountain Trench. It was completed on Sept 28. Nov 15 US General Somervell declines to proceed with a military railway. Canada's Major Charles presents drawings for the Northern Trench portion of a railway from Ware to Lower Post of 351.6 km (218.5 mi), $ 112,000,000 cost, with 17,000 personnel over 400 days. Of the 1217 total miles of proposed railway to Alaska, 530 are on Canadian soil and lie within

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7750-517: The Northern Trench as their strategic railway choice, favoring instead a route to the west similar to the telegraph route. Part of the reason is that the Lower Finlay and Parsnip River portions of the Northern Trench would be flooded by the damming of the Peace River. Reservoir land acquisition commences. Their selected westerly rail route - the Dease Lake Extension along the A Route - has been, in part, abandoned, and in lesser part been reopened to Takla Siding for logging use. 1964 - US Congress tables

7875-492: The Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) was the first scientific reconnaissance of the Rocky Mountains. Specimens were collected for contemporary botanists, zoologists, and geologists. The expedition was said to have paved the way to (and through) the Rocky Mountains for European-Americans from the East, although Lewis and Clark met at least 11 European-American mountain men during their travels. Mountain men , primarily French, Spanish, and British, roamed

8000-413: The Pacific Plate caused the rise of the Rocky Mountains and thereby the Missions. About 66 million years ago, this process of uplift began to slow. This time, called the Cenozoic Era, is when the area began to look much like it does today. Looking at the globe at that time, the continents would have been about where they are today and plant and animal life would be recognizable. At that time, however,

8125-454: The Plains and the Alpine tundra . The Great Plains lie to the east of the Rockies and is characterized by prairie grasses (below roughly 550 m or 1,800 ft). Alpine tundra occurs in regions above the tree-line for the Rocky Mountains, which varies from 3,700 m (12,000 ft) in New Mexico to 760 m (2,500 ft) at the northern end of the Rockies (near the Yukon). The U.S. Geological Survey defines ten forested zones in

8250-423: The Rockies include the La Sal Range along the Utah -Colorado border, the Abajo Mountains and Henry Mountains of Southeastern Utah, the Uinta Range of Utah and Wyoming, and the Teton Range of Wyoming and Idaho. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City , the San Juan Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, the Bitterroots along the Idaho-Montana border, and

8375-464: The Rockies. Zones in more southern, warmer, or drier areas are defined by the presence of pinyon pines / junipers , ponderosa pines , or oaks mixed with pines . In more northern, colder, or wetter areas, zones are defined by Douglas firs , Cascadian species (such as western hemlock ), lodgepole pines / quaking aspens , or firs mixed with spruce . Near tree-line, zones can consist of white pines (such as whitebark pine or bristlecone pine ); or

8500-410: The Rocky Mountains from 1720 to 1800 seeking mineral deposits and furs. The fur-trading North West Company established Rocky Mountain House as a trading post in what is now the Rocky Mountain Foothills of present-day Alberta in 1799, and their business rivals the Hudson's Bay Company established Acton House nearby. These posts served as bases for most European activity in the Canadian Rockies in

8625-485: The Rocky Mountains is one of more rapid change. The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado —with a group of soldiers and missionaries marched into the Rocky Mountain region from the south in 1540. In 1610, the Spanish founded the city of Santa Fe , the oldest continuous seat of government in the United States, at the foot of the Rockies in present-day New Mexico. The introduction of the horse, metal tools, rifles, new diseases, and different cultures profoundly changed

8750-442: The Rocky Mountains on the Oregon Trail beginning in the 1840s. The Mormons began settling near the Great Salt Lake in 1847. From 1859 to 1864, gold was discovered in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, sparking several gold rushes bringing thousands of prospectors and miners to explore every mountain and canyon and to create the Rocky Mountains' first major industry. The Idaho gold rush alone produced more gold than

8875-436: The Rocky Mountains. The Rockies range in latitude between the Liard River in British Columbia (at 59° N) and the Rio Grande in New Mexico (at 35° N). Prairie occurs at or below 550 metres (1,800 ft), while the highest peak in the range is Mount Elbert at 4,400 metres (14,440 ft). Precipitation ranges from 250 millimetres (10 in) per year in the southern valleys to 1,500 millimetres (60 in) per year locally in

9000-512: The Southern Rocky Mountain Trench consist mainly of Precambrian and Paleozoic metasedimentary and sedimentary rocks. Within the trench are unconsolidated Cenozoic sandstones and conglomerates . The aforementioned basement ramp along which orogeny -related thrust faulting and subsequent strike-slip and normal faulting occurred is probably associated with the ancient continental shelf of Paleozoic and Mesozoic time. The southern Rocky Mountain Trench comprises approximately one half of

9125-671: The Southern Rocky Mountain Trench: The southward transborder extension of the Trench into Montana is the primary containment for Lake Koocanusa , a Kootenay River reservoir created by the Libby Dam near Libby, Montana . The large valley and tributaries have always offered an economy based on ranching and logging. This has been supplemented by fortuitous locations of several mines - often in side valleys and producing lead , zinc , coal and gypsum . The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) also constructed

9250-545: The Trench in British Columbia and includes three regions, the Robson Valley , Columbia Valley and East Kootenay (from north to south). It hosts dozens of communities and two major reservoirs - Kinbasket Lake , and Lake Koocanusa (an acronym of Kootenay/Canada/USA.) There are intersections with two other trench features. At the approximate midpoint of Kinbasket Lake, the now submerged Columbia River exits

9375-629: The Trench in an almost southerly direction toward Revelstoke and flows beyond to its point of exit from Canada south of Trail BC. West of Donald BC, the Beaver river flows in from the south - but it represents the intersection of the lesser but impressive feature called the Purcell Trench. The Purcell Trench as it proceeds southward becomes the valley of the Duncan River and Duncan and Kootenay Lakes . There are four geographic segments of

9500-597: The Trench to enter the Interior Plateau, may be used for this purpose. The northern portion of the Trench is dominated by strike-slip faulting , while the southern part of the Trench was created by normal faults . Despite differences in timing and faulting styles of the northern and southern portions, they were aligned with each other because faulting for both was controlled by a pre-existing, west-facing, deep basement ramp with over 10 km (33,000 ft) of vertical offset. The Northern Rocky Mountain Trench

9625-1100: The Trench, at least in part, are the Kootenay River , the Columbia River , the Canoe River , the Flathead River , the Fraser River , the Parsnip River , the Finlay River , the Fox River , and the Kechika River . The North Fork of the Flathead River, flowing into Flathead Lake with the other branches of the Flathead River, is part of the Columbia River system. The Kechika is part of the Liard River system, and

9750-404: The U.S. portion of the mountain range, apex predators such as grizzly bears and wolf packs had been extirpated from their original ranges, but have partially recovered due to conservation measures and reintroduction . Other recovering species include the bald eagle and the peregrine falcon . Since the last great ice age, the Rocky Mountains were home first to indigenous peoples including

9875-743: The United Kingdom and the United States over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the Oregon Dispute became important in geopolitical diplomacy between the British Empire and the new American Republic. In 1841, James Sinclair , Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, guided some 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west to bolster settlement around Fort Vancouver in an attempt to retain

10000-560: The United States, though these rights did not include possession and also included obligations to Britain and Russia concerning their claims in the same region. After 1802, fur traders and explorers ushered in the first widespread American presence in the Rockies south of the 49th parallel. The more famous of these include William Henry Ashley , Jim Bridger , Kit Carson , John Colter , Thomas Fitzpatrick , Andrew Henry , and Jedediah Smith . On July 24, 1832, Benjamin Bonneville led

10125-428: The coal bed, and separating the gas from the water; or injecting water to fracture the coal to release the gas (so-called hydraulic fracturing ). Agriculture and forestry are major industries. Agriculture includes dryland and irrigated farming and livestock grazing. Livestock are frequently moved between high-elevation summer pastures and low-elevation winter pastures, a practice known as transhumance . Every year

10250-804: The context of plate tectonics , strike-slip movement of the Tintina Fault on the Tintina-Northern Rocky Mountain Trench is also related to strike-slip movement along the San Andreas Fault , the extension of the Basin and Range Province , and other extensional or strike-slip fault systems in western North America. The Tintina Fault is one of the two major fault zones paralleling the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province ,

10375-415: The deep valleys of western Montana would not yet have formed. This development is believed to have come about 40 million years ago as the extensional forces that caused the uplift of the Rockies began to cause the crust to thin and crack. Near-vertical faults formed almost uniformly throughout the region, most trending northwest to southeast. The blocks then broke up, some dropping and creating valleys like

10500-658: The early 19th century. Among the most notable are the expeditions of David Thompson , who followed the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. On his 1811 expedition, he camped at the junction of the Columbia River and the Snake River and erected a pole and notice claiming the area for the United Kingdom and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a fort at the site. By the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 , which established

10625-422: The east side. During late Paleozoic to Mesozoic time, rapid sediment deposition and subsidence to the west transitioned in the area of the modern Rocky Mountain Trench into a stable continental shelf in the east. The Nevadan Orogeny destroyed the western wedge of sedimentary rocks during Jurassic to middle Cretaceous time, thrusting them up into metamorphic fold belts. Currently, strata on either side of

10750-399: The economy. The Southern Trench is also known for a number of ski resorts in the trench or in the nearby tributary valleys. These destinations include Fairmont, Panorama, Kimberley, Purden, Kicking Horse and the original Bugaboo heli-ski lodge. Numerous other ski touring and back country lodges are also found here. The summer sports of golf, boating, fishing, and hiking round out the appeal to

10875-544: The edge of the North American Plate boundary, far to the west of the Rocky Mountain region. It was not until 80 Ma that these effects began reaching the Rockies. The current Rocky Mountains arose in the Laramide orogeny from between 80 and 55 Ma. For the Canadian Rockies, the mountain building is analogous to pushing a rug on a hardwood floor: the rug bunches up and forms wrinkles (mountains). In Canada,

11000-577: The first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by using South Pass in the present State of Wyoming. Similarly, in the wake of Mackenzie's 1793 expedition, fur trading posts were established west of the Northern Rockies in a region of the northern Interior Plateau of British Columbia which came to be known as New Caledonia , beginning with Fort McLeod (today's community of McLeod Lake) and Fort Fraser , but ultimately focused on Stuart Lake Post (today's Fort St. James ). Negotiations between

11125-481: The forty years 1972–2012. Jackson, Wyoming , increased 260%, from 1,244 to 4,472 residents, in those forty years. The rocks in the Rocky Mountains were formed before the mountains were raised by tectonic forces. The oldest rock is Precambrian metamorphic rock that forms the core of the North American continent. There is also Precambrian sedimentary argillite , dating back to 1.7 billion years ago. During

11250-477: The gravel road up the west side of the Reservoir to Ware. Beyond that point the northbound traveller will only find a narrow cat guard (a cat guard is a primitive road constructed as a fire guard by heavy equipment-usually a bulldozer-to prevent the spread of a forest fire by creating a fuel free perimeter) for a few kilometres. The Kaska Dena culture of Fort Ware and Lower Post refer to their ancestral use of

11375-639: The inclusion of the Mission Range of mountains... Truly we possess here not the 'garden of Eden,' but that being lost only in myth and tradition we have a most fitting substitute 'The Garden of the Rockies.'" The park service sent a team to study the region during the summer of 1937, but in the end they rejected the proposal, writing, "the Flathead would be of special value in the National Park system if this section were not already fairly well represented by Glacier Park." The first major protective action for

11500-599: The last sixty million years, erosion stripped away the high rocks, revealing the ancestral rocks beneath, and forming the current landscape of the Rockies. Periods of glaciation occurred from the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million – 70,000 years ago) to the Holocene Epoch (fewer than 11,000 years ago). These ice ages left their mark on the Rockies, forming extensive glacial landforms, such as U-shaped valleys and cirques . Recent glacial episodes included

11625-520: The limestone laid down in the shallow sea. The mountains eroded throughout the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic , leaving extensive deposits of sedimentary rock . Terranes began colliding with the western edge of North America in the Mississippian (approximately 350 million years ago), causing the Antler orogeny . For 270 million years, the focus of the effects of plate collisions were near

11750-535: The loss of recreational opportunities. The analysis also revealed that cleanup of the river could yield $ 2.3 million in additional revenue from recreation. In 1983, the former owner of the zinc mine was sued by the Colorado Attorney General for the $ 4.8 million cleanup costs; five years later, ecological recovery was considerable. The Rocky Mountains contain several sedimentary basins that are rich in coalbed methane . Coalbed methane

11875-461: The middle Cretaceous and early Cenozoic , respectively, with the latter probably occurring during the Eocene . Between 750 km (470 mi)to over 900 km (560 mi) of total right-lateral movement has occurred, of which 450 km (280 mi) of offset has occurred since the mid- Cretaceous . The result is that terrains to the west of the fault system have moved toward the north. In

12000-486: The most eventual and most practicable for a railway form the Fraser River to the Yukon. 1914 - Premier McBride advocates a railway on Insp. Moodie's route according to B. Kenelly in a pamphlet 'The British Columbia Peace. Fort St John' 1936. 1926 - Whitewater Post is established by HBC. Whitewater is the translation of Kwadacha, a nearby river. 1930 to 1931 - British Columbia Department of Public Works investigates

12125-425: The mountain range, and they are popular tourist destinations, especially for hiking, camping, mountaineering, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, snowmobiling, skiing, and snowboarding. The name of the mountains is a calque of an Algonquian name, specifically Plains Cree ᐊᓯᓃᐘᒋᐩ asinîwaciy (originally transcribed as-sin-wati ), literally "rocky mountain / alp". The first mention of their present name by

12250-643: The mountain range. After explorations of the range by Europeans, such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie , and Anglo-Americans, such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition , natural resources such as minerals and fur drove the initial economic exploitation of the mountains, although the range itself never experienced a dense population. Most of the highest summits of the Rocky Mountains are in Colorado , with that state having an average elevation in excess of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Public parks and forest lands protect much of

12375-489: The mountains as a place for fishing , hunting , berry-picking, and for performing sacred ceremonies. The first major outside attention to the Mission Mountains came in the 1920s. Forest service employee Theodore Shoemaker led several parties of visitors thorough the range between 1922 and 1924, one of which included members of the Great Pacific Railway Company , which owned a great deal of land in

12500-488: The mudstone in the Missions has much to do with the presence of the mineral hematite during its formation. Hematite is formed by iron particles' reaction to oxygen in the atmosphere. Green and gray stones found in the Missions were most likely formed in deep water, the red in more shallow water. Ripple marks can be found in much of the rock; they would have formed mostly in shallow water with gentle waves. The features of

12625-450: The normal 300 to 500 kilometres (200 to 300 mi). Scientists hypothesize that the shallow angle of the subducting plate increased the friction and other interactions with the thick continental mass above it. Tremendous thrusts piled sheets of crust on top of each other, building the broad, high Rocky Mountain range. The current southern Rockies were forced upwards through the layers of Pennsylvanian and Permian sedimentary remnants of

12750-482: The northern end of the range, the glacier flow split, in part flowing slowly into the Swan Valley. A view of the area at that time would have been majestic, with large glaciers flowing around both sides and partially over the range. Smaller glaciers would have also flowed out of the mountains and joined the larger one in the valley. This explains the southward pointed, hook-shaped ridges at the end of each canyon in

12875-466: The northern half of the range. The Pleistocene was a time of dramatic and quick sculpting in the Mission Mountains. And though that epoch has ended, the erosion continues. Rain, snow, ice, wind, and other forces continue to work at the alpine landscape of the Missions. Recorded human contact with the Mission Mountains began with the native peoples thousands of years ago and runs up to the present. The Salish and Kootenai people have traditionally used

13000-654: The northern peaks. Average January temperatures can range from −7 °C (20 °F) in Prince George, British Columbia, to 6 °C (43 °F) in Trinidad, Colorado . Therefore, there is no single monolithic ecosystem for the entire Rocky Mountain Range. Instead, ecologists divide the Rockies into a number of biotic zones . Each zone is defined by whether it can support trees and the presence of one or more indicator species . Two zones that do not support trees are

13125-564: The northernmost part of Western Canada , to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States . Depending on differing definitions between Canada and the U.S., its northern terminus is located either in northern British Columbia 's Terminal Range south of the Liard River and east of the Trench , or in the northeastern foothills of the Brooks Range / British Mountains that face the Beaufort Sea coasts between

13250-546: The other being the Denali Fault in the Yukon , the U.S. state of Alaska and along the British Columbia Coast . First Nations have traditionally always travelled the northern Trench. There are several post-European contact travels up the northern Trench - often of large proportion. The Trench here remains mostly wild, and the northern 300 km (190 mi) is essentially without roads, excepting

13375-547: The plains in fall and winter for bison and to the mountains in spring and summer for fish, deer, elk, roots, and berries. In Colorado, along with the crest of the Continental Divide, rock walls that Native Americans built for driving game date back 5,400–5,800 years. A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that indigenous people had significant effects on mammal populations by hunting and on vegetation patterns through deliberate burning. Recent human history of

13500-596: The police resources to connect with the more westerly Telegraph Trail route. Under protest, the NWMP field team did so. That trail was soon abandoned due to its non-viable character. The political route departure from Fort Graham westward added 400 rugged snowy kilometres to the total distance without going any favorable ground or measurable distance closer to the north. The Davie Trail is noted to be excellent for wintering horse due to low snow accumulations. 1912 - British Columbia Magazine - prospector Bower reports Sifton Pass as

13625-405: The preferred route for the 120-year-old concept of a Canada Alaska Railway [6] concept. Discussions among feasibility experts still do not seem to favor the B Route despite it being lower, more direct, fewer major river crossings and considerably less snow. The Southern Rocky Mountain Trench was created mainly by Cenozoic-aged extension ( normal faulting ). What little strike-slip movement that

13750-403: The range are the ponderosa pine , western red cedar , douglas fir , western larch , western white pine , lodgepole pine , limber pine , whitebark pine , Engelmann spruce , alpine fir , grand fir , western larch , quaking aspen , alder , and Rocky Mountain maple . Cedars most often grow in the creek bottoms while others are spread throughout the landscape. Up in the higher reaches of

13875-642: The range include: Ashley Lakes, Cold Lakes, Lake of the Stars, Lost Sheep Lake, Lucifer Lake, McDonald Lake (reservoir), Mud Lakes, Mullman Lakes, Rainbow Lake, Schwarz Lake, Summit Lake, and Terrace Lake, among others. Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains , also known as the Rockies , are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America . The Rocky Mountains stretch 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) in straight-line distance from

14000-485: The range is a protected wilderness area, motorized trail bikes , motorcycles , three- and four-wheelers, snowmobiles , hang-gliders and mountain bikes are not permitted. The range has about 45 miles of official trails. Trails are often cut through the rougher terrain. People wishing to take horses into the range need to consult the Flathead National Forest requirements, which include hay restrictions and other rules. Non-tribal members passing through land belonging to

14125-487: The range. These processes also gave the Mission Mountains their distinct shapes. The many three-sided peaks, called horns or pyramidal peaks , and the knife-like ridges of the southern half of the range are results of the heavy mountain glaciation. The northern half of the range was largely rolled over by the Flathead Lobe, which was much like a huge moving ice sheet. This led to the shorter, more rounded features of

14250-534: The range. On a 1923 trip Shoemaker triangulated the locations of several peaks, which led to the first map of the high country. In the 1930s, the Mission Mountains were considered for inclusion in a proposed national park in the area south of Glacier National Park . Ronan Commercial Club president J. L. Jones wrote to the National Park Service director in support of the idea, "We suggest, Mr. Albright, that you add to your already splendid services

14375-455: The range. Smaller animals found in the Missions include hoary marmots , yellow-bellied marmots , snowshoe rabbit , pika , chipmunk , squirrel , porcupine , muskrat , badger , skunk , beaver , marten , weasel , and mink . Western Montana's famous huckleberry is also found all over the slopes of the Mission Mountains in the mid-to-late summer. They are a favorite for hikers and grizzly bears alike. The most common trees found in

14500-491: The rock in the Mission Mountains hails from the end of the Proterozoic Eon, towards the end of what is called Precambrian time. Because they are so old, the only evidence of life in the rocks is algae blooms and very basic plant fossils. These organisms played, however, the important role of converting carbon dioxide in the water into oxygen that was pumped into the acidic and poorly oxygenated atmosphere. The color of

14625-646: The route from Fox River to Sylvestre's Landing. There was also a reported drive of cattle on this route (echoed in Moodie's reports and in Kaska oral history.) 1906 – A North West Mounted Police patrol under field supervision of Inspector Constantine began the construction of the Police Trail westward from Hudson Hope and then northward up the Northern Trench from HBC's post at Fort Graham. 1907 - British Columbia Premier R. McBride intervened and asked Canada to direct

14750-695: The scenic areas of the Rocky Mountains draw millions of tourists. The main language of the Rocky Mountains is English. But there are also linguistic pockets of Spanish and indigenous languages. People from all over the world visit the sites to hike, camp, or engage in mountain sports . In the summer season, examples of tourist attractions are: In the United States: In Canada, the mountain range contains these national parks : Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta border each other and are collectively known as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park . In

14875-494: The service industries that support them. Tents and camps became ranches and farms, forts and train stations became towns, and some towns became cities. Economic resources of the Rocky Mountains are varied and abundant. Minerals found in the Rocky Mountains include significant deposits of copper, gold, lead, molybdenum , silver, tungsten , and zinc . The Wyoming Basin and several smaller areas contain significant reserves of coal, natural gas, oil shale , and petroleum. For example,

15000-536: The surrounding area can be found in the book, In the Shadows of the Missions . As most of the Mission Mountains fall under special protection, land use is limited largely to recreation. The best time to hike in the Mission Mountains is between the beginning of July and October. Winter ends late in the high country and even in the beginning of July hikers will often find high passes and lakes snow-covered and wet. Snow starts to fly as early as October and hiking season

15125-655: The terranes and subduction are the foot pushing the rug, the ancestral rocks are the rug, and the Canadian Shield in the middle of the continent is the hardwood floor. Further south, an unusual subduction may have caused the growth of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, where the Farallon Plate dove at a shallow angle below the North American Plate . This low angle moved the focus of melting and mountain building much farther inland than

15250-602: The trail from Fox Lake north is often hard to find, or obliterated to all but indigenous and experienced Kaska natives. It may be more commonly used as an aviation route today. The northern trench from the Highway 97 bridge on the Parsnip River has routes on both sides of Williston Lake to Fort Ware . The route up the east side cannot be followed due to the Peace Reach of the reservoir. The road traveler will use

15375-940: The winter, skiing is the main attraction, with dozens of Rocky Mountain ski areas and resorts . The adjacent Columbia Mountains in British Columbia contain major resorts such as Panorama and Kicking Horse , as well as Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park. There are numerous provincial parks in the British Columbia Rockies, the largest and most notable being Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park , Mount Robson Provincial Park , Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park , Kwadacha Wilderness Provincial Park , Stone Mountain Provincial Park and Muncho Lake Provincial Park . Rocky Mountain Trench Although some of its topography has been carved into U-shaped glacial valleys , it

15500-567: Was eventually buried and later re-exposed through the collision of several tectonic plates around 80 million years ago. Much of the Belt Rock found in the Mission Mountains is a crumbly sedimentary rock known as mudstone . The mudstone in the Belt supergroup is often characterized by mudcracks , which points to it being formed while wet, drying, cracking, and then being repeatedly flooded with new wet material that also dried and cracked. Most of

15625-500: Was sent by the HBC north through Finlay Forks to The Fox River (Kwadacha) and returned later that season. He narrowly missed being the first white person to go all the way up the Northern Trench to the Liard River but chose not to listen to his guide - heading north westward seeking the source of the Finlay River instead. He travels far enough NW to discover the headwaters of another Trench tributary - The Turnagain River. Natives there find

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