History of Marias Pass

In about 30 minutes our route will take us over Marias Pass and the Continental Divide. For years, explorers and surveyors had attempted to find a suitable railroad passage through the Rocky Mountains near the Canadian border. Even Lewis and Clark missed this pass, which could have shortened the length of their Rocky Mountain journey and lessened its hardships. Though this area was well-known to the indigenous people of the Blackfeet and Salish-Kootenai tribes, it wasn’t until December 1889 that Chief Engineer John F. Stevens plowed through four feet of snow in temperatures of -40 degrees Fahrenheit, which is -40 degrees Celsius, reconnoitering Marias Pass for the Great Northern Railway. The railroad line we are following today was completed over Marias Pass in 1893.

Native American tribes used this pass as a hunting trail. The Blackfeet used the pass both to trade with and to raid other indigenous people to their west, including the Salish-Kootenai. And other tribes used the trail on their annual trek to the Northern Great Plains to hunt bison. In 1891, Engineer Stevens went on to locate a route through the Cascade Mountains in Washington. In later years he would serve as Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal project, a major portion of which involved the construction of a railroad across the isthmus of Panama. The Marias River east of the Continental Divide was named for Maria Wood, cousin of Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Marias Pass acquired its name in later years from the name of the nearby Marias River.

2017 ROUTE GUIDE, Condensed Historical and Natural Science Material from the Complete Resource Guide, Empire Builder – Amtrak Train 8 Between Edmonds, Washington and Havre, Montana, NPS