Northern Tour - Old North Trail

Event Details

The Old North Trail is thought to have been the oldest and the longest trail in human history, tracing the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, from northern Canada all the way into Mexico. In pre-Colombian North America, the Old North Trail was used for travel, trade, following and hunting herds and was also the frequent venue for conflicts between tribes.

The Old North Trail along the Rocky Mountain Front has a few distinctive characteristics to it. The first is that it is a path of least resistance. While many other trails branch off of it into the mountains and over passes high and low, here the Old North Trail skirts the Rockies outside of the Rockies, as there are no foothills, but it also never ventured far onto the vast North American Plains which offer little to no shelter.

The Old Trail Museum offers two different versions of the Old North Trail Tour. The northern version of the tour is more or less “Blackfeet-centric”, visiting tipi rings, buffalo jumps, eagle traps and a turtle effigy. The southern tour is more or less “Métis-centric”, visiting a Métis cemetery, Big Bear’s cabin, the site of a former Métis settlement in the canyon of the south fork of the Teton River. While these two tours differ in theme, there is certainly overlap on subject matter.

Start Time 7:00:00 AM