Pipestone Pass is a mountain pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 of Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It sits on the continental divide

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 connected to the open sea...

 in Silver Bow County, Montana

Silver Bow County, Montana

-National protected areas:*Beaverhead National Forest *Deerlodge National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 34,606 people, 14,432 households, and 8,933 families residing in the county. The population density was 48 people per square mile . There were 16,176 housing units at...

, 10 miles south of Butte, Montana

Butte, Montana

Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...

 in Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest is the largest of the National Forests in Montana, United States. Covering , the forest is broken into nine separate sections and stretches across eight counties in the southwestern area of the state. President Theodore Roosevelt named the two forests in...

 at a height of 6,347 ft (1,935m).

The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...

 (commonly known as the Milwaukee Road) used the pass for its crossing of the Continental Divide

Continental Divide

The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...

 on its mainline between Chicago, Illinois and the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

. The line was built as part of the Milwaukee Road's Pacific Extension, which was completed in 1909. The railroad line cut under the pass via the 2,290 ft. Pipestone Pass Tunnel. The line was electrified in 1915 and served the Milwaukee Road's premium transcontinental passenger train, the Olympian (later the Olympian Hiawatha

Olympian Hiawatha

The Olympian and its successor, Olympian Hiawatha, was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad as train Nos. 15 and 16 from 1911 to 1961...

). A poor competitive position against the rival Burlington Northern Railroad

Burlington Northern Railroad

The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....

 and substantial losses caused the Milwaukee Road to abandon the line in 1980. It is still used as Montana Highway 2 and known locally as "The Harding Way" named in honor of President Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

 on the occasion of his visit to Butte.

A trail running race currently takes place on the Continental Divide Trail

Continental Divide Trail

The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail is a United States National Scenic Trail running 3,100 miles between Mexico and Canada. It follows the Continental Divide along the Rocky Mountains and traverses five U.S. states — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico...

 between Pipestone Pass and Homestake Pass

Homestake Pass

Homestake Pass is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of Montana in the United States. It sits on the Continental Divide of the Americas on the border between Jefferson County, Montana and Silver Bow County, Montana, six miles south-southeast of Butte, Montana in Beaverhead-Deerlodge National...

. Hosted by Butte's Piss and Moan Running Club, the Wulfman CDT 14k is held annually on the Saturday closest to the Summer solstice

Summer solstice

The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also...

.