1. Mount Haggin WMA was established in 1976 in part to provide year-round habitat for wildlife emphasizing elk, moose, and mule deer. Other species that are known to use the management area permanently, seasonally, or occasionally are antelope, white-tailed deer, black bear, wolf, coyote, mountain lion, grizzly bear, bobcat, beaver, pine marten, wolverine, various bird species, a variety of amphibians, and a variety of small mammals. The Big Hole side (east of the Continental Divide) of the WMA provides calving and summer range to elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer and antelope that migrate from as far away as Bannack, 50 miles to the south. Deep snows force these ungulates to migrate to lower elevations during the winter. Moose occur year-round on Mount Haggin WMA. Due to their predominant consumption of browse, they are heavily associated with aspen and willow communities with nearby conifer stands for security. The WMA provides the public with year-round recreation opportunities such as hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, camping, horseback riding, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and wildlife viewing. Snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and other forms of winter recreation is permitted within Mount Haggin WMA on the east or Big Hole side of the Continental Divide only. The remainder of the WMA is closed in order to provide security for wintering big game. Portions of Mount Haggin WMA have been heavily affected by gold mining and logging industries in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Some remnants of these activities, such as flumes, trestles, roads, and cabins, remain scattered throughout the WMA. Much of the conifer forest on the WMA had been heavily logged in the early 1900’s when timber was harvested to supply lumber to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Large amounts of timber were necessary for fueling local smelters and for mine stulls to support tunnels and shafts. The ridges surrounding Mount Haggin, with their vast acreages of lodgepole pine, offered a convenient source of timber. The Anaconda Company awarded a contract for 300,000 cords of wood in 1883. A second contract was awarded for 100 million board feet of timber in 1906, all from the Mount Haggin area. The Big Hole Forest Reserve was established in November 1906 in part to bring some measure of protection to the timber resources of the Mount Haggin area. Two years later, lands from this reserve were divided into the Beaverhead, Bitterroot, and Deerlodge National Forests. Most of the timberlands in the Mount Haggin area were included in the Deerlodge National Forest. Because of the immense amount of timber being harvested in the Mount Haggin area, the U.S. Forest Service developed many of their marking rules and timber selection guideline. The 1906 timber contract, in fact, was the first large timber sale in U.S. Forest Service’s Region 1, and because of such status earned a visit from Gifford Pinchot, chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1905 to 1910.

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1. Vanna Boccadori vboccadori@mt.gov
2. Mailing Address:
3. 1820 Meadowlark Ln
4. BUTTE
5. 59701
6. Phone:(406)494-2082