When 40 Acres = 18,000 Acres

Sometimes a little means a lot.

Certainly that’s the case with a mere 10-yard-wide connection of private land with public land that will provide a wealth of access to hunters and hikers in the Big Snowy Mountains starting Oct. 26, the opening of the deer and elk rifle season. 

That’s when property acquired by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which is selling the 40-acre parcel to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, will be opened to public use. The land is located about 20 miles south of Lewistown, west off Red Hill Road.

“This is a major, major access point,” said Bruce Auchly, information officer for FWP in Great Falls.

South of Lewistown

The land is located near the northeast corner of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, which surrounds the Big Snowy Mountains, an island range in central Montana. On its southwest corner the small parcel barely touches the forest land, but it's a sufficient abutment to allow hikers and hunters into No Name Canyon and the East Fork of Big Spring Creek, as well as the surrounding area — about 18,000 acres.

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