British Columbia and Alberta in
Glacier National Park is a prominent peak along the Rocky Mountain Front. In
Alberta, the Rocky Mountain Front is about wide. As early as 1935, it was well-recognized that significant coal resources underlay the Rocky Mountain Front in Alberta. As of 2013, about 60 percent of all Canadian coal reserves are believed to be beneath the front in Alberta. Natural gas is also very plentiful.
Royal Dutch Shell began producing natural gas there in the Pincher Creek Gas Field in the 1950s, and built a sweetening plant there in 1957. The Pincher Creek Gas Field can produce up to 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and in the 1960s Shell Oil built a second sweetening plant near
Waterton Lakes National Park. The Rocky Mountain Front in British Columbia and Alberta has long been inhabited by Plains Indians, and the area contains widely scattered but not uncommon Native American rock art sites. Development along the front is somewhat limited. In the 1940s, planners considered building the
Alaska Highway along the Rocky Mountain Front in British Columbia and Alberta but ultimately decided on a coastal route. In the early 2000s, the
Nature Conservancy was working to secure environmental
easements along the front in Alberta to protect
grizzly bear habitat.
Montana The Rocky Mountain Front in Montana from the Canada–US border south to about
Helena is heavily deformed by
faulting,
folding, and
overthrusting. During the
Sevier orogeny mountain-building event about 115 and 55 million years ago, what is known as the Cordilleran foreland thrust-and-fold event occurred along the east side of the Rocky Mountains in northwest Montana. The thrust-and-fold belt does not extend all the way south through Montana. Instead, it cuts west above
Three Forks continues south—crossing the
Snake River Plain and skirting the west side of the
Colorado Plateau before cutting west again to enter
California. Although most of this mountain-building has since been obliterated by additional orogeny and volcanic activity, most of it still exists in northwestern Montana. The Rocky Mountain Front in this area represents some of the highest changes of elevation within a short distance anywhere in North America. Much of this part of the front, including the
Lewis Range and
Livingston Range, has suffered heavy
glaciation. According to a definition used by the
Christian Science Monitor, the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana extends only about south of the state's northern border. Ranches cover much of the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana. The spectacular scenery also led to the creation of a number of
guest ranches in the area, and some of the state's best-known guest ranches are near
Choteau and
Augusta. The Rocky Mountain Front in Montana contains some of the last relatively untouched native prairies in the northern
Great Plains. The front forms the eastern boundary of what is called the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem". Extensive numbers of
prairie rattlesnake are also found there. Heavy coal, oil, and natural gas development along the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana began in the 1970s. By the early 2000s, there were estimates of as much as 2.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas below the front in Montana, although only 200 billion cubic feet was available on leasable land. By 2003, much of the Rocky Mountain Front in the state consisted of land owned by the U.S. federal government and managed by the
United States Forest Service and the federal
Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Beginning in 2001, petroleum exploration was banned for a six-year period on Forest Service land in the front. In the fall of 2002, BLM issued new regulations making it easier to engage in oil and gas production along the Montana front. Conservationists have actively worked to protect the region from energy exploration.
Colorado In
Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Front extends from the west-northcentral part of the border with Wyoming south to the city
Pueblo and the
Arkansas River. Peaks within the front include
Pikes Peak,
Mount Blue Sky, and
Longs Peak. Just east of the Rocky Mountain Front is the
Colorado Piedmont, and within the Piedmont is the most heavily urbanized part of the United States between Chicago and the West Coast. The only pass through the Rocky Mountains in the area is the
Tennessee Pass. The Rocky Mountain Front forms the eastern boundary of a triangular area of volcanic activity centered on western Colorado. Several
sandstone horizons underlie the Colorado Rocky Mountain Front as well, and decline steeply to the east. ==In popular culture==