High Country Thoroughfare
Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan and 124 men forged the first documented passage over the Beartooth Mountains in 1881. Once thought impassible, the route was later modified by E. E. Van Dyke - a miner from coal rich Red Lodge, Montana. His route provided access through Rock Creek to Red Lodge but it remained a steep and rugged trail.
Although early Native Americans, trappers and prospectors are part of the past, today’s travelers can cross much of the original route created over a century ago… and experience one of America’s most scenic highways.
Early visionaries foresaw a scenic route over these mountains accessing Yellowstone National Park. Carving an expensive road over an 11,000’ plateau, however, was not popular with Congress. Persistence paid off and finally in 1936 — after two years of construction — the Beartooth Highway opened to the public. The highway was designated a National Forest Scenic Byway in 1989.
Marker can be reached from Beartooth Highway (U.S. 212) 8.2 miles west of Rock Creek Road, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
