The Crazy Mountains, often called the Crazies, is a mountain range in the Central Montana Alkalic Province in the U.S. state of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. They are a part of the northern

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 ...

Geography

Spanning a distance of 40 miles (64 km), the Crazy Mountains are located between the Musselshell and

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellow ...

rivers. The highest peak is Crazy Peak at . Rising over above the

Great plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

to the east, the Crazies dominate their surroundings and are plainly visible just north of

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, and ...

. The Crazy Mountains form an isolated

island range An island range is a mountain range that exists in total or almost total isolation from a larger chain of ranges and sub-ranges. From a distance on the plains, these ranges appear as "islands" of higher ground. They are often described as islands of ...

east of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

. Other isolated ranges in Montana include the Castle Mountains,

Little Belt Mountains The Little Belt Mountains are a section of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. state of Montana. Situated mainly in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, the mountains are used for logging and recreation for the residents of Great Falls, Montana. Show ...

Big Snowy Mountains The Big Snowy Mountains ( ats, níichʔibííkʔa, lit=it is never summer) are a small mountain range south of Lewistown in Fergus County, Montana. Considerably east of and isolated from the main crest of the Northern Rockies, they are one of the ...

Little Snowy Mountains The Little Snowy Mountains are a small mountain range in central Montana about southeast of Lewistown. The range lies mostly in Fergus County, but the southern part of the range extends into Golden Valley and Musselshell counties.''Big Snowy ...

Bears Paw Mountains The Bears Paw Mountains (Bear Paw Mountains, Bear's Paw Mountains or Bearpaw Mountains) are an insular-montane island range in the Central Montana Alkalic Province in north-central Montana, United States, located approximately 10 miles south of ...

, Judith Mountains, North and South Moccasin Mountains, Highwood Mountains, Little Rocky Mountains, Sweet Grass Hills,

Bull Mountains The Bull Mountains, el. , are a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains located in Yellowstone and Musselshell Counties in the U.S. state of Montana, lying northeast of Billings Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with ...

and, in the southeastern corner of the state near

Ekalaka Ekalaka is a town in and the county seat of Carter County, Montana, United States. The population was 399 at the 2020 census. History Ekalaka was named after a Sioux girl, Ijkalaka, who was the wife of David Harrison Russell, a scout. Ijka ...

, the

Long Pines The Long Pines, elevation , is a small mountain range southeast of Ekalaka, Montana, in Carter County. This range is closely affiliated with three other small ranges in the area: the Ekalaka Hills, which are also located in Carter County, t ...

Geology

The Big Timber

Stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

, a large igneous intrusion, forms the bedrock in the Crazy Mountains. The stock is of

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

age, and consists of

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-sil ...

and

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ...

with zones of Quartz Monzodiorite, and which has been intruded by many

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

and sills. Geological features of the Crazy Mountains include: * Shields River * South Fork Musselshell River *

Sweet Grass Creek Sweet Grass Creek is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in south central Montana in the United States. It rises in the Gallatin National Forest, in the Crazy Mountains in eastern Park County. It ...

* Crazy Peak

Adjacent Counties

Meagher County, Montana Meagher County (pronounced Marr) is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,927. Its county seat is White Sulphur Springs. According to the United States Census Bureau, the 2010 center of po ...

- north *

Sweet Grass County, Montana Sweet Grass County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,678. Its county seat is Big Timber. The county was founded in 1895. History The Montana Legislature authorized Sweet Grass Coun ...

- east *

Park County, Montana Park County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. At the 2020 census, the population was 17,191. Its county seat is Livingston. A small part of Yellowstone National Park is in the southern part of the county. History The Territorial Legis ...

- west, south

Wildlife

Due to the eastern location, these mountains are drier and less densely forested than other mountain ranges in Montana. There are at least 40 alpine lakes in the range, 15 of which are named. The Crazy Mountains sit in both Gallatin National Forest and

Lewis and Clark National Forest Lewis and Clark National Forest is located in west central Montana, United States. Spanning , the forest is managed as two separate zones. The eastern sections, under the Jefferson Division, is a mixture of grass and shrublands dotted with "islan ...

. The Crazies support a healthy herd of

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs an ...

s and the occasional elusive

wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a musc ...

History

In 1916, the Crazy Mountains were proposed as a location for a national park, but

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

failed to pass the legislation.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

officials considered the area again in 1935, but reported that a national park would not be feasible because "half of the land, every alternate section, is owned by the

Northern Pacific Railroad 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, whi ...

or is in private hands."

Access

The Crazies are almost completely surrounded by private lands making access into the mountains somewhat difficult, especially in the southern section where the highest peaks are located.

Name origin

The name Crazy Mountains is said to be a shortened form of the name "Crazy Woman Mountains" given them, in complement to their original

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

name, after a woman who went insane and lived in them after her family was killed in the westward settlement movement. The

Crow people The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke (), also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation loc ...

called the mountains ''Awaxaawapìa Pìa'', roughly translated as "Ominous Mountains", or even more roughly, "Crazy Mountains". They were famous to the Crow people for having metaphysical powers and being unpredictable—a place used for

vision quest A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. It is usually only undertaken by young males entering adulthood. Individual Indigenous cultures have their own names for their rites of passage. "Vision quest" is an English ...

South Face of Crazy Mountains from Livingston January 2015

East Face of Crazy Mountains January 2015

Notes

External links

Crazy Mountains: Backdrop to Big Timber
SweetgrassCounty.Com

BigSkyFishing.Com * {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Montana Ranges of the Rocky Mountains Landforms of Sweet Grass County, Montana Landforms of Park County, Montana Gallatin National Forest Lewis and Clark National Forest