The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
Sorted by date Results 26 - 31 of 31
Almost immediately upon departing the Three Forks area, the newly formed Missouri is neatly tucked into a mini-gorge. Then, only 16 miles from its inception, the Toston Reservoir and Dam decelerate its flow. After traversing the "Little Gates of the Mountains," so noted on Clark's map of July 25, 1805, as "2d range of mts - little gate," near the small village of Toston, the river will soon ply the last of the big southwest valleys. Officially established when the post office...
On Aug. 12, 1805, Meriwether Lewis penned in his journals, "the road was still plain, I therefore did not dispare of shortly finding a passage over the mountains and of tasting the waters of the great Columbia this evening. At the distance of four miles further the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in search of which we have spent so many toilsome days in wristless nights." Lewis was describing today's Distant Fountain Spring, part...
Authors' Note: This piece is excerpted from a report Clyde Fickes wrote in May 1944. It appeared in "Volume 1 – Early Days In The Forest Service." His words are excerpted with light editing. Fickes retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 1947. He died at age 103 on Dec. 29, 1987 – from an accident on the dance floor. For a Ranger Station, no more isolated or lonesome spot could have been found. Visitors were practically unheard of for months at a time. The nearest nei...
At a recent book signing, a gentleman who knew quite a bit about the Judith Basin country explained how Utica, a small town in the basin on the road into the Little Belt Mountains, received its name. He mentioned that one of the early arrivals onto that landscape thought folks would have to be crazy to live there. (We can't figure out why, as it's a beautiful piece of geography, but perhaps he showed up in the winter when strong winds were blowing and piling up drifts of...
Call it 670 miles – or perhaps more precisely 674 miles – but either way, the Yellowstone River remains the nation's longest undammed waterway. It's a great river that meanders through some of the finest mountain and prairie topography on the planet – peaks reaching past 12,000 feet in elevation, the largest high-mountain lake on the continent, dense evergreen forests, buttes, colorful badlands, deep canyons, and sweet-smelling sage and juniper covered hills. A good porti...
Authors' Note: This piece is excerpted from a report Clyde Fickes wrote in May 1944. It appeared in "Volume 1 – Early Days In The Forest Service." His words are excerpted with light editing. Fickes retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 1947. He died at age 103 on Dec. 29, 1987 – from an accident on the dance floor. The Sun River country comprises some interesting and spectacular topography. The river comes out of the mountains in a due east and west course for some 8 or 9 m...
