Lemhi Pass continental divide
— — the saddle that turned the Missouri into the Columbia.
Not only on a wall.
“A grass saddle at 7,373 feet on the Continental Divide, where the Beaverhead Mountains let a wagon track through. Meriwether Lewis crossed here on August 12, 1805, the first American to step over the divide, expecting to see a navigable river west and finding more mountains. Sacagawea's Lemhi Shoshone band wintered on the slope below. The pass is still a gravel road today, often empty, the water on one side running to the Gulf and on the other to the Pacific. from the studio
Lemhi Pass continental divide, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Lemhi Pass crosses the Continental Divide at 7,373 feet on the spine of the Beaverhead Mountains, marking the boundary between Beaverhead County in Montana and Lemhi County in Idaho. The pass is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1960 for its role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The route is a maintained but unpaved Forest Service road, drivable in summer in dry weather and closed by snow most of the year from late autumn through spring. Surrounding land lies within Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest on the Montana side and Salmon-Challis National Forest on the Idaho side.
On August 12, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and three companions became the first United States citizens to cross the Continental Divide, walking up to the pass from the Missouri headwaters and drinking from a small spring on the east side that Lewis recorded as the source of the Missouri. The view west disappointed him: more mountains, not the navigable river the expedition had hoped for. Sacagawea, traveling with the Corps of Discovery, recognized the country as her own. Within days the expedition reunited with her brother Cameahwait, chief of the Lemhi Shoshone, who supplied the horses that carried them west.
The pass is reached by gravel Forest Service roads from Tendoy, Idaho on the west side or from Grant, Montana on the east, both about a thirty-mile drive from the nearest paved highway. The road is open roughly July through October depending on snow, narrow in places, and not recommended for low-clearance cars or any vehicle pulling a trailer. The Sacajawea Memorial Camp and the Lewis Spring sit just below the summit on the Montana side, both maintained by the Forest Service with picnic tables and interpretive signs. No fee, no staffing, no cell service.