Bannock Pass is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the

Beaverhead Mountains The Beaverhead Mountains, highest point Scott Peak, el. , are a mountain range straddling the Continental Divide in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho. (See also the GNIS link here.) They are a sub-range of the Bitterroot Range, and divide Be ...

, part of the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. The pass lies on the

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

border on the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The pass is crossed by a road ( Idaho State Highway 29 and Montana Secondary Highway 324) from Leadore, Idaho to

Dillon, Montana Dillon is a city in and the county seat of Beaverhead County, Montana, Beaverhead County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,880 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named for Sidney Dillon (1812–1892), preside ...

. Bannock Pass should not be confused with the similarly named Bannack Pass, about to the southeast, which is also in the Beaverhead Mountains, on the Montana-Idaho border, and on the Continental Divide, and which has virtually the same elevation ().

History

Bannock Pass is named for the

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (British and Irish food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle served mainly in Scotland but consumed throughout the British Isles * Bannock (Indigenous American food), various types of bread, usually prepare ...

Native American people. In 1909 and 1910 the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad was constructed through the area. In order to keep the grades manageable, the railroad used a switchback on each side of the ridge and bored a tunnel under the summit somewhat east of the current highway crossing. The railroad was abandoned in 1939.

References

External links

{{Montana Mountain passes of Idaho Mountain passes of Montana Great Divide of North America Landforms of Lemhi County, Idaho Landforms of Beaverhead County, Montana Borders of Idaho Borders of Montana Transportation in Lemhi County, Idaho Transportation in Beaverhead County, Montana Rail mountain passes of the United States