A Man and His Dream
It’s safe to say that if a man named J.C.F. “Doc” Seigfriedt had listened to what anybody was telling him in the 1920s–anybody at all–the Beartooth Highway, that spectacular 68 mile stretch of winding, cliff-hugging, cloud-skimming road, simply would not exist. But by all accounts, Doc was a force of nature, and from the time he arrived here, he had his heart set on building a road that would connect this area with the wonderland of Yellowstone National Park. It took him seventeen years and countless thousands of dollars to make it happen, but this summer we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of his dream come true.
Seigfriedt started out as a doctor for the mines in Bearcreek, and over the years served as mayor to both Bearcreek (5 terms) and Red Lodge (1937 until his death in 1940), as well as state senator for Carbon County (1920-24). Siegfriedt loved hunting, fishing and playing the zither (a stringed instrument likely brought to this area by Eastern European immigrants) and was a tireless promoter of the beauty of the Beartooths.
First Attempt: Black and White Trail starting from Bearcreek
Doc’s first plan, hatched in the years before World War I, was to build a road from Billings through Bridger and Belfry and from there up the east side of Mount Maurice to Cooke City–bypassing Red Lodge. He called it the Black and White Trail, after a similar route found on early 1900s Forest Service maps. Ever the promoter, he assured supporters that Red Lodge would be able to connect to this road and benefit from the tourists that were sure to flood the area.
In early July of 1919, he took advantage of a strike in the Bearcreek mines to get his project started. He and a volunteer crew of 7 men with 6 teams of horses built the first 2100 feet of road in four days. That summer, they reached the saddle just east of Mount Maurice in a total of 13 switchbacks, which are still faintly visible from atop the Bearcreek hill. But Siegfriedt was raising money for his project through popular subscription and soon ran out of funds. His election to the state senate in 1920 may have given him ideas for getting serious about securing funding, though.
“Seemingly Impossible…”
By the winter of 1924, things in Red Lodge were looking pretty bleak. One of the two mines had just closed, and miners’ demands for better working conditions and higher wages had mine owners looking for cheaper sources of coal. But Doc Siegfriedt wasn’t about to let Red Lodge go bust like so many western boom towns before it. He and a group of like-minded men including O.H.P. Shelley–editor of the Carbon County News–got together with a single goal: to convince the federal government to build their road.
It was a tough sell. The Billings Gazette once claimed “that it was a seemingly hopeless attempt from the start was apparent to everyone but the men who started it.” The paper added that within a few years the hopelessness was clear to all but Siegfriedt and Shelley.
But the town continued to back them up. Every year from 1925 until 1931, the people of Red Lodge put together another $2,500 to send Shelley to D.C. to lobby Congress for the road. And each year, a businessman recalled, Shelley had one more senator on his side.
