What’s so special about this place? And what are people doing to keep it that way? Those questions, posed by National Geographic Society and the National Parks Conservation Association, have been answered by hundreds of local residents from northwestern Montana, southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta who share claim to the Crown of the Continent region that surrounds Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The result is a beautiful printed MapGuide of the region and its companion, a user-generated Web site that I’m privileged to edit.
This summer, in partnership with the Flathead Beacon, we’ll share a regular sampling of this region’s remarkable stories, places, events and experiences.
Here in Montana’s Flathead Valley, we’re rightfully proud of our clean, abundant lakes and rivers, Bob Marshall Wilderness, and Glacier National Park. But our neighbors to the north are passionate about their Flathead River, too, which flows 40 miles south before it crosses the border and is known as the North Fork in Montana. The Flathead was a prominent issue in the recent British Columbia election, in which legislative candidates contended as the leader most likely to block open-pit, mountain-removal coal mining proposed by a Toronto firm.
Residents of Choteau, Dupuyer or Augusta celebrate their Rocky Mountain Front, where the prairie meets the dramatic reef-like escarpment of the Rocky Mountains. So to do the residents of Waterton, Pincher Creek, and Ranchlands in Alberta. An added bonus in Alberta is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a World Heritage Site on the southern cliffs of the Porcupine Hills, where First Nation hunters stampeded bison for thousands of years before guns and horses.
Each of these places is special in its own right, but the region as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Crown of the Continent is, as National Geographic editor Jonathan Tourtellot says, “one of the most intact natural ecosystems in the temperate zones of the world. It is a place of plunging valleys, sweet water, ancient cedar forests, native prairie and diverse wildlife. It’s also a place with a rich cultural heritage: Sovereign First Nations still occupy the same territory after thousands of years, alongside loggers, ranchers, miners and more recently an influx of new residents who have brought far-flung business ventures and incomes.”
In today’s global economy, there’s growing demand for unspoiled landscapes surrounded by friendly communities that have retained their unique character. While some may think we’ve lost that here in the Crown of the Continent, you only need to travel elsewhere to appreciate what we still have, an authenticity that is in shrinking supply across North America and the world. Whether your motivation is dollars, community, or wild nature, we all should find common interest in sustaining this place.