40 Fun Facts About Continental Divide

Which is the only continent said to have no continental divide, because it has no significant free-flowing rivers?

Antarctica is the one continent with no recognised continental divide. Its interior gets very little precipitation, all of it snow, so slow ice streams rather than rivers carry water to the sea.

Which waterway crosses the Continental Divide of the Americas at the man-made Culebra Cut, only 26 metres up?

The Panama Canal breaches the divide through an artificial valley once called the Gaillard Cut. American crews lowered its summit from 59 metres to 12 and dug out over 76 million cubic metres of material.

Which US president is the namesake of the Interstate 70 tunnel that burrows under the Continental Divide west of Denver?

Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his name to the westbound bore, opened in 1973, and the Interstate system itself also honours him. At 11,158 feet, the tunnel is the highest point on the whole Interstate network.

Which South American mountain system carries the Continental Divide of the Americas from Colombia down to Patagonia?

The Andes carry the divide through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, then along Chile's eastern edge. For much of that stretch the watershed doubles as the border between Chile and Argentina.

Triple Divide Peak, where rain can run toward three different oceans, stands in which US national park beside Canada?

Glacier National Park holds the peak that geographers call the hydrological apex of North America. That status is the main reason the park and its Canadian neighbour are nicknamed the Crown of the Continent.

Which explorer crossed the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass in August 1805, two weeks ahead of his full expedition?

Meriwether Lewis reached the crest with three men on August 12 and saw only more snowy ranges to the west. He met the Shoshone the next day, and the whole expedition crossed on August 26.

South Pass, a broad gap in the Continental Divide, let covered wagons cross the Rockies on which famous emigrant route?

The Oregon Trail funnelled emigrants over South Pass, the lowest point on the divide between the Central and Southern Rockies. Wagons bound for California and Utah used the same crossing.

Hiking's Triple Crown joins the Continental Divide route, the Pacific Crest and which famous eastern footpath?

The Appalachian Trail completes the set, running from Georgia to Maine. Together the three routes cover about 7,875 miles and pass through 22 states.

Which comic actor played Chicago newspaper reporter Ernie Souchak in the 1981 romantic comedy Continental Divide?

John Belushi played the reporter, who falls for a bald eagle researcher played by Blair Brown. Michael Apted directed the film from a script by Lawrence Kasdan.

Abbot Pass Hut straddled the Continental Divide, so rain on its roof's eastern half ran toward which Canadian landmark?

Lake Louise caught the runoff from the hut's eastern eaves, while rain on the western half ran to Lake O'Hara and on to the Pacific. The Alpine Club of Canada hut sat on the boundary of two national parks.

Which Colorado fourteener, named for a botanist, is the highest point on the Continental Divide in North America?

Grays Peak honours botanist Asa Gray, who did not see or climb it until 1872, eleven years after a colleague named it for him. Mount Elbert is taller but stands near the divide rather than on it.

Water from Triple Divide Peak can reach the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and which huge Canadian bay to the north?

Hudson Bay takes the peak's northern runoff by way of the Saskatchewan and Nelson rivers. Rain on the other slopes ends up at the mouth of the Columbia or in the Mississippi delta near New Orleans.

The Continental Divide splits to encircle the Great Divide Basin, where rain reaches no ocean, in which US state?

Wyoming holds the basin, a stretch of the Red Desert that pioneers called the Saline Plain. It was so dry that the main wagon routes detoured to the north and south of it.

The Continental Divide forms the southern part of the border between British Columbia and which other Canadian province?

Alberta meets British Columbia along the crest of the Canadian Rockies, where the watershed itself is the boundary. Farther north, at the 120th meridian, the border leaves the divide and runs straight.

The Continental Divide of the Americas begins at Alaska's Cape Prince of Wales, on the eastern side of which waterway?

The Bering Strait is where the divide starts, at the westernmost mainland point of the Americas. Cape Dezhnev, on the opposite shore, lies just 51 miles away.

Along the Bitterroot Range, the Continental Divide forms part of the state line between Montana and which neighbour?

Idaho meets Montana along the divide for roughly the eastern third of their shared boundary. Just before that stretch, the watershed passes a Montana community that is itself named Divide.

Isa Lake straddles the Continental Divide at Craig Pass and drains toward two oceans in which US national park?

Yellowstone has the lake, whose outlets seem to run backwards: the east side drains to the Pacific and the west side to the Gulf of Mexico. It sits beside the road between Old Faithful and West Thumb.

Independence Pass, a Continental Divide crossing at 12,095 feet, shuts each winter, isolating which Colorado ski town?

Aspen loses its direct road east whenever snow closes the pass for the season. The road crests in the Sawatch Range, midway between the town and Twin Lakes.

The Laurentian Divide, which meets the main Continental Divide in Montana, marked the northern edge of which land deal?

The Louisiana Purchase reached north to this low watershed, which was the US border with British territory until an 1818 treaty swapped it for the 49th parallel. In North Dakota it is so flat that travellers take its sign for a joke.

In Alaska, the Continental Divide separates rivers bound for the Pacific from those flowing to which other ocean?

The Arctic takes the water from the far side of Alaska's crest, which is why the line there is also called the Pacific-Arctic Divide. Farther south the same watershed sends its eastern rivers to the Atlantic.

Which scenic Montana drive, completed in 1932, crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, 6,646 feet above sea level?

Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only route across its national park, and Logan Pass is its highest point. Crews began work in 1921, and the east side has few guardrails because avalanches kept destroying them.

Hazmat trucks barred from Interstate 70's Continental Divide tunnel must detour over which Colorado crossing on US 6?

Loveland Pass sends US 6 over the top, about 800 vertical feet above the tunnel, with hairpin turns on both sides. It is named for William Loveland, a railroad president who raised funds for the first road.

Which 6.2-mile railroad bore, opened in 1928, finally gave Denver a western rail link under the Continental Divide?

The Moffat Tunnel is named for railroad pioneer David Moffat, who laid out the route in 1902 while seeking a shorter line to Salt Lake City. A parallel bore carries part of Denver's water supply.

Engineer John Frank Stevens charted Marias Pass across the Continental Divide in December 1889 for which railway?

Great Northern gained the lowest crossing of the divide between Canada and central New Mexico, found with the help of a Flathead guide named Coonsah. A statue of Stevens stands at the pass.

Rogers Pass, on the Continental Divide in Montana, set which weather record for the contiguous United States in 1954?

Lowest temperature is the record: a reading of −70 °F on January 20, 1954, during a severe cold wave. The next road over the divide to the north is more than 100 miles away.

The Tour Divide, a self-supported bike ride down the Rockies to the Mexican border, starts in which Canadian town?

Banff is the start of the 2,745-mile ride, which follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. There are no entry fees and no prizes, and the clock runs without a pause until the finish.

Which country holds the lowest natural pass on the Continental Divide of the Americas, at the Isthmus of Rivas?

Nicaragua has the low point, on the narrow neck of land between its great lake and the Pacific. Planners have eyed the gap for a ship route between the oceans since early colonial times.

The Continental Divide skirts New Mexico's Plains of San Agustin, best known as the site of which radio observatory?

The Very Large Array sits on the plains, a closed basin that straddles the divide. Rain that falls there reaches neither ocean and collects instead in dry lake beds called playas.

Our Lady of the Rockies, a 90-foot statue atop the Continental Divide, overlooks which Montana mining city?

Butte sits in a natural bowl high in the Rockies, with the statue on the heights to its northeast. The city began as an 1864 mining camp and grew into Montana's first major industrial city.

Which teenage aviator was the first person to fly an airplane across the Continental Divide, over Mullan Pass in 1911?

Cromwell Dixon made the 26-minute hop from Helena only after a $10,000 purse was raised for the attempt. He was killed two days later when his biplane fell at a fair in Spokane.

What replaced the Canadian Pacific's steep Big Hill line, just west of the Continental Divide at Kicking Horse Pass?

The Spiral Tunnels opened in 1909, ending 25 years on a supposedly temporary track with a 4.5% grade, among the steepest adhesion railway lines anywhere. It had been laid to save time on blasting a long tunnel.

Which Columbia Icefield summit on the Continental Divide, named by J. Norman Collie in 1898, is also a triple divide?

Snow Dome got its name because its permanently snow-capped massif looks like a dome. Water from its summit can reach three different seas, making it one of North America's two hydrological apexes.

What term do geographers use for closed basins like the Great Divide Basin, where water never drains to any ocean?

Endorheic basins lose their water to evaporation from lakes and swamps instead of sending it to the sea. Several sit beside the divide, and where one straddles it the line splits and loops around both sides.

What do Coloradans call the Pacific-draining third of the state, across the Continental Divide from Denver?

Western Slope is the local name for the land beyond the divide, about 33% of Colorado with just 10% of its residents. Water falling on the other side heads for the Gulf of Mexico.

Which crossing between Buena Vista and Almont is the highest paved road over the Continental Divide in the US?

Cottonwood Pass tops out at 12,119 feet, and the project that widened and paved it was finished only in September 2019. Heavy snow shuts it from around October until some time in May.

Which British decree drew a colonial settlement line in North America roughly along the Eastern Continental Divide?

The Proclamation of 1763 forbade new settlements beyond a line running north from Georgia through Pennsylvania. The land to the west of it was set aside as an Indian Reserve.

The Alva B. Adams Tunnel sends water 13 miles east under the Continental Divide from which Colorado body of water?

Grand Lake, the state's largest natural body of water, feeds the tunnel, which runs dead straight beneath Rocky Mountain National Park. NBC Radio broadcast the moment crews holed it through in March 1944.

Which Continental Divide crossing on US 160 in Colorado's San Juan Mountains inspired a C. W. McCall trucking song?

Wolf Creek Pass also gave its name to the country performer's 1975 debut album. The real road climbs at grades of up to 6.8% and has two runaway truck ramps on its westbound side.

Which river rises just east of the Continental Divide in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, then flows south past Taos?

The Rio Grande forms where several streams join at the base of Canby Mountain. It crosses the San Luis Valley and New Mexico on a 1,896-mile run to the Gulf of Mexico.

In Africa, the most significant continental divide separates the basin of the Congo from that of which great river?

The Nile lies across the watershed from the Congo, along a line about 2,000 kilometres long. Colonial powers made it the boundary between British territory and French and Belgian lands before the area had even been mapped.