Building the Beartooth Highway

Written by Dave Vickery
Photography contributed by Carbon County Historical Society & Museum

It was on Flag Day in 1936 that the dream of a road leading from Red Lodge to Yellowstone National Park was finally realized and this year’s Flag Day, June 14, will mark the 88th anniversary of the official opening of what the late Charles Kuralt dubbed, “the most beautiful drive in America,” the Beartooth Highway. 

Early efforts to complete a highway from the Red Lodge area, over the Beartooth Mountains to Yellowstone Park started as early as 1915. Promoters pushed for the Black and White Trail to run from Bearcreek up over Mount Maurice ending in Cooke City. Survey work was done and by 1919 a rough, five-mile-long roadway led to the top of Line Creek Plateau. But by 1921, new federal funding was only being granted for highways connecting large population regions, thus eliminating the chance to complete the Black and White Trail.

By 1924, with automobile travel becoming more and more popular, a new plan was born to build the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge across the Beartooth Plateau to Cooke City and on to Yellowstone Park. In 1927, after years of lobbying by Montana’s Congressional delegation, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads ordered a survey for the proposed highway. By October of that year the survey was complete, opening the way to achieve approval of the project.

Final funding was achieved in 1931 when, after years of Congressional debate, the National Parks Approaches Act was passed, and construction of the roadway began in the spring of 1932.  

Local men, including my father, Fred Vickery, and his brothers, Ted and Jim, jumped at the chance to work for steady wages, particularly given the financial depression sweeping the nation. A Great Depression-era Project of the 1930s, work on the highway was a godsend as men lined up daily to carve a road into the mountains.

Men were paid an average of 50-cents an hour for hard manual labor with picks, prybars and shovels, to as high as 75-cents an hour for skilled workmen operating draglines and bulldozers. Early on, the Vickery men were tasked with clearing the right of way along the survey markers along Rock Creek upstream from Red Lodge.

It took brute force by thousands of men to clear a roadway through the canyon and up the steep mountains with crews working from both directions. The stretch from Red Lodge clawed its way south, up the glacial valley and across the alpine tundra to the Beartooth Plateau. This was the most difficult segment, and required moving trees, boulders, and talus alongside the canyon, carving a passable trail of switchbacks into the steep granite face of the Beartooths before reaching the summit. The initial contract for this portion went to Morrison-Knudsen of Boise, Idaho, and the section was completed by the end of construction season in 1932.

The second segment began near the Montana-Wyoming state line and stretched for 25 miles to the north, connecting with the road coming up the Rock Creek side near Twin Lakes. Work on this section required constructing bridges across numerous creeks and building the roadway across areas brimming with thousands of glacial boulders atop the plateau. The initial contract for this section was awarded to a Portland, Oregon firm, McNutt and Pyle. Moving equipment from Gardiner, Montana coupled with difficult terrain and poor management led to delays. It took until December 1933 to complete the second stretch and it bankrupt the company.

An additional 17 miles of construction was required to finish the road from the Montana state line to Yellowstone Park’s boundary near Silver Gate. This section was completed by the Winston Brothers of Minneapolis. Other smaller contracts were issued to complete the most northern segment from Red Lodge to Piney Dell Lodge.

By the end of the 1935 construction season, all 68 miles of the highway were finally completed, including the installation of guard rails, a gravel surface and all the impending details of the construction projects.

Finally, on a beautiful June day in 1936 the official opening of the Beartooth Highway took place after a $2.5 million investment.

The greatest challenge in the 88-year lifespan of the highway has been road maintenance. Initially, the Bureau of Roads and Yellowstone National Park were tasked with road upkeep and the major job of plowing deep snow in the spring. During World War II funding became limited and the Park Service was hard pressed to continue maintenance and the highway fell into disrepair over the mountains.

In the 1960s, the responsibility of plowing the highway from the Montana-Wyoming state line was accepted by Montana’s Department of Transportation from the state line south to the park, but was still the responsibility of the Bureau of Roads. Every year, huge snow moving equipment works from both directions to open the road, usually by Memorial Day.

Since the 90’s it’s been Montana’s responsibility for any maintenance and additional construction from Red Lodge to the Wyoming state line. From that point to the park boundary, the National Park Service is responsible.

Today, the highway is a two-lane economic lifeline for the towns of Red Lodge, Cooke Cit and Silver Gate, connecting them on what is a spectacular byway that climbs across the face of the Beartooths before heading southward into Yellowstone Park. Montana spends close to $1.1 million every year for everything from road maintenance, rock removal, guard rail repair and of course plowing the highway to keep the well know passage open.

The men who struggled and sweated for almost five years to construct this incredible highway took immense pride in the work they did, and in a job well done. Decades later, we have the privilege of enjoying the toil of their hands with awe at what they accomplished. The character of the men is in full evidence as the fruits of their hard labor was transformed into an opportunity for millions of people to traverse the mountain grandeur of what is called today, “The Beartooth All-American Road.”