Beartooth Highway Website Resources

Friends of the Beartooth All-American Road (FBAAR) relies heavily on both public and private partners for historical information, facts and figures, highway specifications and historical detail, and Beartooth Highway images. Special thanks to the following for sharing this information!

Wyoming Travel & Tourism
1520 Etchepare Circle Cheyenne, WY82007
www.WyomingTourism.org | email:info@visitwyo.gov
tel 307-777-7777|fax. 307-777-2877|toll free: 800-225-5996

Montana Office of Tourism
PO Box 200533 | 301 South Park, Helena, Montana 59601
travel.mt.gov
tel. 406-841-2870 | 1.800.847.4868

Custer National Forest
1310 Main Street | Billings, MT 59105
tel. (406) 657-6200
www.fs.fed.us/r1/custer

Merv Coleman Photography
P.O. Box 1249 Red Lodge, MT 59068
tel. 406-446-1228 or 800-726-2228
www.mervcoleman.com | email: colemanstudio@cablemt.net

Historical, Reference & Informational Materials

Chief Joseph Scenic Byway & Beartooth All-American Road Interpretive Plan
Shoshone National Forest & Custer National Forest, Date: January 16, 2009

Beartooth All-American Road Corridor Management Plan
Prepared by The Beartooth All-American Road Steering Committee, January, 2002

Guide to the Beartooth Highway – SP 110
Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology, June, 1995

A History (more or less) of the RDS, B-4, L-T & Hancock Ranches
by Ed Spencer (with K.T. Roes), 2004

Exploring the Yellowstone High Country, A History of the Cooke City Area
by Ralph Glidden, Third Edition, June, 2007 made available by the Cooke City/Silver Gate Chamber of Commerce

An Interpretive Plan of the Beartooth Corridor in Montana & Wyoming
copy provided by Shoshone National Forest Service

“An Orphaned Highway”, by Michael Kulbacki, Bert McCauley & Steve Moler
published in Public Roads, July-August, 2006

Did You Know?

Whirlpools often form when water rushes through a rough channel. Water glancing off rocks starts spinning as it is hit by other water rushing by. Any material caught up in the whirlpool will spin with the water. In time, spinning sand, pebbles and grave may carve potholes, like the ones seen in the rocks above the bridge. During the construction of Lake Creek bridge, boulders were removed from the creek’s bed the water channel was changed exposing the potholes. Watch for them when you visit Lake Creek Falls.

The Clay Butte Lookout was built in 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and was used as a fire lookout. It was staffed until the 1960s, when aircraft proved a better tool for fire detection. Today, because of its popular scenic vantage point and proximity to the Beartooth Highway, Clay Butte is used as a visitor information site. It was remodeled in 1962 and has been staffed since 1975 by volunteers. The focus of Clay Butte today is to give visitors a glimpse of how fire lookouts functioned 60 years ago. Sightseers driving the scenic byway stop to obtain information or take in the view, which includes wildlife, botanical areas, the effects of the Clover-Mist wildfire of 1988, and the geology of ancient seas that once covered the Beartooth Plateau.