ROCKY MOUNTAIN FROF^ DRAINAGES 



Rivers: Marias, Teton, Sun, Dearborn 



Boundaries: Headwaters to Missouri River 



Drainage Size: Marias - not available; Teton - not available; Sun 



- 1,854 square miles; Dearborn - not available 



Main stem length: Marias 171 miles; Teton 196 miles; Sun 106 



miles; Dearborn 67 miles 



Cities/Towns: Cutbank, Loma, Choteau, Augusta, Simms 



Access: Montana Highway 287 



The Rocky Mountain Front rises abruptly to 9,500 feet above 

 the prairie grasslands like a mirage shimmering in the desert. 

 Jumbled peaks, crags and cliffs of the Scapegoat, Bob Marshall, 

 and Great Bear wilderness corridor stretch north from Lincoln to 

 Glacier Park and on into Canada. The four tributary streams 

 squeeze through tight limestone canyons before spilling out onto 

 the prairie, where they begin lazy meanderings to meet the 

 Missouri River. The Marias, Teton, Sun and Dearborn rivers drain 

 the Rocky Mountain Front from the Canadian border to Rogers Pass 

 (Figure 9). Like other Montana rivers, the upper drainages of 

 these four rivers lie protected within the boundaries of 

 wilderness areas or Glacier National Park. 



The Marias River forms at the confluence of Two Medicine River 

 and Cutbank Creek, along the Blackfeet Indian Reservation border 

 and flows 115 miles before entering the Missouri near Loma. Its 

 tributaries originate along the eastern slopes of Glacier National 

 Park, before flowing through the reservation and onto the rolling 

 plains of north central Montana. 



The Teton River joins the Marias less than a mile before its 

 confluence with the Missouri. After being formed by its north and 

 south forks, the Teton meanders across the agricultural valley of 

 the Missouri for 95 miles. 



The Sun River has originated at the spillway of Gibson 

 Reservoir since the dam was constructed for irrigation storage. 

 Dammed again only several miles below its origin, its waters are 

 then diverted into two off-stream irrigation storage reservoirs. 

 Willow Creek and Pishkun. 



Fisheries 



While important to the local communities of Augusta, Choteau 

 and Cutbank, the fisheries of the Marias, Teton, Sun and Dearborn 

 rivers do not hold the national attention that the area's grizzly 

 bears. Pine Butte Swamp, outstanding big game populations, or 

 wilderness values do. Once these rivers leave the forested Front 

 from which they originate they change character quickly into 

 valley rivers, diverted, impounded and rechanneled for the heavily 



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