Montana Crossroads - Montana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

A Montana Crossroads
The Missouri River once flowed northeasterly through this valley to the Hudson bay.During the Bull lake ice age, an ice dam near Loma diverted the river into it's current channel. The channel began filling with glacial sediment, preventing the river from returning to it's original course when the dam finally broke about 70,000 to 130,000 years ago.Several sections of the highway between Loma and Havre follow Big Sandy Creek, which is located in the original channel.

From this point there is also a panoramic view of three major Montana river systems- the Teton, Marias and Missouri. To the southwest, the Teton and Marias merge near Loma before joining the Missouri about a mile downstream. In the background are the Bear's Paw mountains to the east, Square butte and Round butte to the southeast, the Highwood mountains toward the south, and the Little Belt mountains in the southwest.

Because of the geography, this area was the crossroads for many events important to Montana history. The Lewis and Clark expedition passed through here in 1805. They were followed by fur traders, the steamboats, the Great northern Railway and the homesteaders.

Describe the area and history: You can see all the mountains and rivers pointed out on the sign.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/15/2013 ZenPanda visited it