Togwotee Pass/Continental Divide
U.S. Highway 26/287 at Togwotee Pass between Moran Junction & Dubois

Named in 1873 by Captain W. A. Jones honoring his Shoshone Indian guide, Togwotee. Elevation 9,658 feet, Shoshone and Teton National Forests

Interpretive Signs

Togwotee Pass
Blackfoot, Crow and Shoshone Indian hunting parties, following the trail of elk, deer and buffalo, made the first human trail through this pass. Next came such courageous mountainmen as John Colter, Jim Bridger, Joe Meeker and Kit Carson who courted death in the search for prime beaver pelts.

Capt. Jones, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army was on reconnaissance for a wagon road across these mountains when he was guided by Togwotee. In 1898, the army built the first wagon road over Togwotee to assist troop movements protecting the westward flow of pioneers. The first auto road was constructed in 1922. TOGWOTEE (pronounced toe-go-tee) means Lance Thrower in Shoshone.

Parting of the Waters
Here, on the Continental Divide, the course of mighty rivers is decided. Moisture from melting snow and summer showers filters into the soil, later emerging as small streams which form the rivers. The Wind and Missouri Rivers to the East, the Snake and Columbia to the West.

Two Ocean Creek, not far from here, was so named because its waters cascade both east and west from the top of the Divide watershed to finally reach both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Moving Mountains
Natural forces sculptured the scene before you over 15,000 years ago. Glaciers gouged out the huge valleys from massive layers of lava. The Breccia (bretch-yuh) cliffs are composed of angular pieces of rock cemented together with finer materials. The ground you stand on constantly changes as nature continues to shape it. Wind tears at the thin soil. Rains attacks and erodes the bare ground. In such ways “mountains are moved.” Where possible man seeks to slow this process slowing the force of water with dams, and maintaining a protective cover of vetetation in the form of grass or timber.