Capturing the Crown of the Continent

By Emily Haas, 2-07-08

	Caption: Click the image to view a slideshow.

During the University of Montana’s winter session, a group of students ventured out to learn in one of the state’s most spectacular outdoor classrooms, the Crown of the Continent.

It was Rick Graetz’s pilot Crown of the Continent geography course, designed to examine the complex and threatened ecosystem that lies just north of Missoula. The ecosystem of the Crown of the Continent can be defined geographically on a map, but its influence is not limited to that area. The Crown’s northern border begins at British Columbia’s Crowsnest Pass and the Elk River, the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River. The crown stretches 250 miles south to the Blackfoot River Corridor and HWY 200 at Roger’s Pass. The crown’s eastern border encompasses the Rocky Mountain Front, where the vast short grass prairie ends abruptly at the impressive over thrust belt, and extends west to the Mission and Flathead valleys, including the Whitefish range.

This area boasts one of the richest histories and most diverse population of plants and animals in North America. Our ancestors used this area when they traveled on the Great North Trail where they crossed the continent from the Bearing land bridge to South America. Native Americans frequently crossed the landscape to hunt in the “Buffalo Commons” on the eastern side of the mountains, a site that saw trading between tribes and brutal warfare. Pine Butte Swamp on the Rocky Mountain Front is the last place in the lower 48 that grizzlies can still make a living on the prairie. A remnant of a massive glacier from the last ice age, Flathead Lake, is the largest natural body of freshwater this side of Mississippi, and the 79th largest lake in the world.

The University is embarking on a new, multi-disciplinary initiative to coordinate research in and near Glacier National Park and the Rocky Mountain Front. The initiative, seeing first light through the Geography Department, offers new curriculum, research and internship opportunities. An Interpretive Center for the park is one of many benefits that you, an owner of the park, might see as a result of collaborated efforts.

NewWest.Net photographer Emily Haas was one of the students exploring the Crown. Click here or the image to view her slideshow.