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1864 Bridger Trail
Archived: 2026
Also known as Bridger Road and Bridger Immigrant Road, the Bridger Trail connected the Oregon Trail to the 1864 gold fields in Montana. The route intentionally avoided the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho by running west of the Bighorn Mountains in the lands of the Crow and Shoshone People. The trail was not well-defined except at […]
French Woman’s Road
Helena to Elliston, Montana
Archived: 2026
The Frenchwoman’s—aka French Woman’s—Road originated in 1687 connecting Helena, Montana with the Little Blackfoot River and the Deer Lodge Valley. Constant Guyot operated the toll road from her home on Dog Creek. The road was eventually replaced with U.S. Highway 12 and the pass is now known as MacDonald Pass. For more, read “The Frenchwoman […]
1846 Mormon Pioneer Trail
Archived: 2026
Aliases: Mormon Trail, Mormon Pioneer Trail, Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail Download route: KML | KMZ Leaving from Omaha/Council Bluffs in 1846, the Mormon Pioneers used this route to go from Council Bluffs to the Great Salt Lake Valley. They stayed on the north side of the Platte River moving westward to Fort Laramie. They […]
Clift’s Musselshell to Fort Ellis Military Road
1869 Military Road Exploration
Archived: 2025
In 1869, Captain E. W. Clift explored Montana Territory for the location of a wagon road from the mouth of the Mussellshell River, on the Missouri River, to Fort Ellis. He also explored an alternate of the route that went from White Sulphur Springs to Helena, by way of Duck Creek Pass. This was part […]
Fletcher-Dimmitt 1902 Wagon Trip
Western Kansas to Eastern Washington
Archived: 2015
In 1902, the Fletcher’s and Dimmitt families moved from Kansas to Chesaw, Washington. What was unusual about this migration was that they chose to make the trip by wagon in a day dominated by rail travel. In 1902, there were wagon roads from town to town, but no organized highways. The trip took three months, […]
Lord Selkirk’s Land Grant Map
1817 Map of Assiniboia
Archived: 2015
Lord Selkirk’s (Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk) Land Grant of 116,000 Square Miles, known as Assiniboia, Including the Forts, was mapped in 1817. This land grant was in Canada and North Dakota and included the Red River of the North
Western Watershed Boundaries
Map of the Continental Divide and the Great Basin Divide
Archived: 2017
This map shows the most significant Western watershed boundaries in the United States, the Great Continental Divide, and the Great Basin Divide. These watershed boundaries were drawn with great accuracy based on USGS topographic maps. Water does not flow out of either the Great Basin or the Great Divide Basin.