North of the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness is the 32,318-acre Beartooth Wildlife Management Area named for the nearby 6,792-foot Beartooth Mountain.  Bighorn sheep were observed here by the Lewis and Clark expedition. One writer commented, “Big-horned animals on the immensely high and perpendicular cliffs opposite to us.  On the face of this cliff they walked about and bounded from rock to rock with apparent unconcern.”  Sheep were reintroduced to the area in 1955, with subsequent introductions into the 1990s.  The sheep population was nearly decimated by a lungworm pneumonia disease complex in 1984. 

Kayde E. Kaiser | University of Montana | Geography Department