The Crown

The Crown of the Continent: Regional Geography

The "Crown", as the region is called, is an area that runs North-South along the continental Divide from Canada Highway 3 to US I-90 east of Missoula.  This particular part of the country is renowned for the Waterton Lakes Provincial Park in Canada, and Glacier National Park in the US.

The region is quite diverse as it is the place where artic species from the North, Rocky Mountain species from the South, Maritime species from the West, and interior continental species from the east converge.  This land is also the headwaters to the Columbia, Missouri, and Saskatchewan watersheds, which cover nearly half the continent!

This diversity means that depending on where someone looks, tree species will vary quite greatly, which is what I'm primarily interested in, along with the terrain, for the purposes of the Crown Peak Logging Company Railroad. So let's get a quick overview of the region:

South:

Bob Marshall Wilderness

This is a typical scene in the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex.  Short trees, high elevation.  Logging was accomplished in the area, but the dryer conditions made for smaller trees, and thus fewer profitable logging railroads.Further to the South along the I-90 corridor are several huge mountain ranges separated by vast prairies.  Ranges like the Pioneers, The Madison Range, and the Tabacco Root Mountains.  The prairies, for obvious reasons, didn't have much logging activity.  However, the construction of the Northern Pacific, Milwaukee Road, and Union Pacific Railroads to the Butte Mining Complex required vast amounts of timber, and thus many small operations sprang up for several years to service the railroads and the large copper mines at Butte and Anaconda.  In addition to logging, there were several railroads developed to transport minerals from the different mines in the region.  The biggest mines were the copper mines at Butte, but there were several Silver mines, one of which used narrow gauge equipment from the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad in what became known as the Montana Southern Railroad.  Possibilities abound in this region with interesting history and a "wild west" feel to the towns.

East:

East Glacier National Park

This image is of East Glacier National Park.  Further to the east is the Blackfoot Indian Reservation.  It should be noted that both the Reservation and the National Park were in existence in the 1920's and 1930's, during the height of logging railroads in Northwest Montana, so there was very little, if any logging activity, save for tracts of land around the Great Northern Railroad. The trees can all be found in the mountains themselves as the prairie quickly takes over from East Glacier onward.  To be honest, there's not much opportunity for a fictional logging railroad in this part of the region, though it is beautiful!

Central:

Flathead Lake from the western shore

This region primarily consists of the Flathead Valley, Flathead Lake, and the three branches of the Flathead River.  Spanning from the Continental Divide westward to Marion, Montana and running from the Canadian Border to Missoula.  The big difference between this part of the Crown and other areas is that there is massive waterways.  Flathead Lake is the largest lake in the region and was once host to a variety of sawmills on the North and South ends of the lake.  Towns such as Polson, Bigfork, and Kalispell were built around the logging industry.

The largest river in the region is the Flathead, which has three tributaries that border Glacier National Park.  But the Swan River, and the Big Fork river led logging crews into stands of good timber for harvesting.  Many of the creeks and rivers were too small to float logs, so railroads would be used to haul timber to either a landing where logs could be floated, or directly to the sawmills.  Northern species of pine, cedar, and fir as well as some species of hardwoods are spread throughout the region.

West:

BNSF trackage along the Flathead River near Perma, Montana

Finally we have the western extent of the Crown. This region extends from the Canadian Border down to the Bitter root valley in Southwest Montana and from Marion, Montana west to Coeur d'alene, Idaho.  This region is dominated by lower elevation, a wet climate, warm winters, and BIG trees.  The biggest trees were the old growth stands of Western Cedar.  These trees could be 8 feet in diameter, 200 feet tall, and 400 years old, rivaling that of the Redwoods along the coast.  And just like the redwoods, these cedar trees were sought after by loggers in the region.  With the Northern Pacific, Milwaukee Road, and Great Northern running through the heart of the area, the Western region of the Crown had easy access to railroad transport, and thus many logging and mining railroads sprang up in the region.

Additionally, the Clark Fork River drainage, being so flat, meant that many small logging operations could go up all the creeks feeding the river, giving loggers easy access to vast stands of timber, both old growth and newer trees.  The wet climate also meant lower risk of forest fires, so many of the trees were in fact quite old.


North:

Across the border in Canada, the Northern Rockies hold vast stands of timber that was extensively logged and shipped either down river, or to the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railroads to be hauled out to markets at Vancouver, Seattle, or eastern to markets along the Great Lakes.  In fact, Canada has a vast amount of timber in the Rockies and across the northern tier which spawned thousands of logging railroads.  However, this region is a bit too far and out of scope for the purpose of this blog, so there isn't much to really add here.

Concluding Statements:
 
I should put this out there, when I talk about the "Crown of the Continent", I'm speaking of a vast region in terms of logging, mining, and human activity.  The "Crown of the Continent" which biologists, ecologists, and geographers use is a much smaller area, concentrated around Waterton Lakes, Glacier National Park, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.  This area itself was restricted to the loggers and miners in the region, being that the National Park was created in 1910 and the lands which would become the Bob Marshall were protected soon after and into the 1940's. Therefore, I can't say that I'm modeling Glacier National Park itself, because there was no logging in the area. But I can model the region AROUND the National Park, which is exactly what I intend to do.  So for the purposes of this blog, the "Crown" has grown to accommodate most of Northwest Montana and Northern Idaho.