Lookout Pass is a mountain pass 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 straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

of the northwestern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. In the Coeur d'Alene Mountains 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' ...

, the pass is on the border between

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

and

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

, traversed by

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, a ...

(formerly

U.S. Route 10 U.S. Route 10 or U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) is an east–west United States highway located in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Unlike most U.S. routes with "0" as the last digit of its route number, US 10 ...

) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic 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 surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. Lookout Pass is the eastern border of northern Idaho's Silver Valley, and has the distinction of being "Exit 0" on Interstate 90 in Montana. Established in 1935, Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area is on the eastbound side of the highway, straddling the border. The state border line is the ridge line of the mountains and at the pass runs briefly east–west, with Idaho on the north side and Montana the south. The pass separates the communities of Mullan in

Shoshone County Shoshone County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,169. The largest city is Kellogg. The county was established in 1864, named for the Native American Shoshone tribe. Shoshone County is c ...

, Idaho, and Saltese in Mineral County, Montana. It is the highest point on Interstate 90 between

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork Ri ...

. The pass is also a

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because i ...

border, with northern Idaho on

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

and Montana on Mountain Time. Eastbound on I-90, its elevation is not surpassed until beyond Deer Lodge. The pass was formerly traversed by the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, w ...

and the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

is still intact and used as a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetca ...

. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("The Milwaukee Road") ran nearby, using the St. Paul Pass Tunnel south of Lookout Pass; its East Portal is at , southwest of exit 5 of I-90 in Montana. The tunnel was completed in 1908 and is part of the '' Route of the Hiawatha'' rail trail. The historic Mullan Road of 1860 crossed the Bitterroots nearby at Mullan Pass (), approximately east-northeast at

References

External links

Webcam - Lookout Pass
from

Idaho Transportation Department The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) is the state of Idaho governmental organization responsible for state transportation infrastructure. This includes ongoing operations and maintenance as well as planning for future needs of the state and i ...

Webcam - Lookout Pass
from

Montana Department of Transportation The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Montana, responsible for numerous programs related to the construction, maintenance, and monitoring of Montana's transportation infrastructure and operat ...

David Rumsey Map Collection
– Historic road map (1937) – Idaho, Montana, Wyoming – Texaco (Rand McNally)
Idaho highway map (1956)
– Shell (H.M. Gousha) Mountain passes of Idaho Mountain passes of Montana Landforms of Shoshone County, Idaho Landforms of Mineral County, Montana Borders of Idaho Borders of Montana Transportation in Shoshone County, Idaho Transportation in Mineral County, Montana Idaho Panhandle National Forest Interstate 90 Rail mountain passes of the United States {{MineralCountyMT-geo-stub

See also

References

External links