Welcome to the Lincoln, Montana Picture Tour

One of the highlights of riding to Lincoln, Montana is the climb up and over Fletcher Pass (Elevation 6,131 ft). No matter what time of year there is sure to be something interesting to see along side the road. Starting in Helena you ride northwest on Highway 279 past Canyon Creek, Montana to Stemple Pass. If it’s winter and you have you skis, turn left and burn some calories cross country skiing on Stemple Pass. During the autumn months, you can be sure to see monster elk in the evening as they file down from the hillsides to sample the tasty alfalfa fields in the valley. Continue on and there is a high probability that you will see wild turkey and an occasional moose. Finally, in the Summer, keep your eyes peeled for Angus cattle or grouse on the shoulder of the road.

In this tour we take a look at Lincoln Montana during our favorite time of year, winter to see the start of the famous Race to The Sky dog sled race.  Then we will thaw out and see some of the landmarks you will pass as you ride Highway 279 over Stemple Pass to Lincoln Montana in July.

Race to The Sky

For the past 32 years, volunteers have organize a 300 mile sled dog race which has become the premier winter event in Montana.  Race to the Sky is a Montana tradition dating back to to the Army dog training center at Camp Rimini during WWII.

https://youtu.be/iWMWJB1Mr-Q

Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture In the Wild

Once so ubiquitous in Montana and the Northwest, The Teepee Burners were testaments of a once thriving timber industry. This iconic piece of industrial heritage has all but disappeared from the landscape. The Delaney & Sons sawmill west of Lincoln was the largest and most modern sawmill in the Upper Blackfoot Valley. In 1965 the Delaney sawmill employed over 100 men during the peak summer period. The sawmill closed in 1971 and it’s machinery was removed. The Teepee Burner, which was used to burn wood refuse, was left on the landscape.  In 2018, the Teepee Burner was moved east of Lincoln into the sculpture park as part of a Montana memory project celebrating the industrial heritage of the Upper Blackfoot Valley.

Teepee Burner

The metal, rust colored, Teepee Burners are to Western Montana what Grain Elevators are in Eastern Montana. Both represent life as was a hundred years ago and both are slowly being removed from the landscape. What’s a Teepee Burner? Once the lumber was cut and stacked for market you were left with tons of wood bark, branches and wood chips. The cost effective method of disposing of the wood waste was to burn it. There is a Metal Sculpture north of Main Hall in Missoula that best illustrates a Teepee Burner in action. Finding the reminders of Montana’s Past is always a treat. We included a picture of the Teepee Burner near Ravalli that was converted into a home and the Burner outside White Sulphur Springs.