Marias Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains in the western US state of Montana. Lying on the southern border of Glacier National Park, it is traversed by US Highway 2 and by the BNSF Hi-Line Subdivision. The pass is the lowest crossing of the Continental Divide between Canada and central New Mexico , and is the northernmost pass in the US open to automobile traffic year-round. Geography Marias Pass traverses the Continental Divide in the Lewis Range, along the boundary between the Lewis and Clark National Forest and the Flathead National Forest. The pass forms the southern limit of the Continental Ranges, a major grouping of the Rocky Mountains which extends as far north as McGregor Pass in the Northern Rockies of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Great Bear Wilderness in Lewis and Clark National Forest is south of the pass and Glacier National Park is to the north. History As a low pass through the Rocky Mountains, Marias Pass was undoubtedly known to Native Americans for countless years. And while the pass was likely known by early fur trappers, its potential for use beyond foot traffic wasn’t recognized until the middle of the nineteenth century. Survey of 1853 In 1853 Congress approved funding to survey possible routes for a transcontinental railroad. The project was known as the Pacific Railroad Survey, and Isaac Stevens (who had just been appointed as the first governor of Washington Territory) was chosen to lead the survey of the northernmost of the four candidate routes. Stevens’ voluminous report of that survey, published six years after the expedition, provides detailed insights. Of September 5, 1853, Stevens writes: Mr. Lander was busily occupied to-day in fitting out his party for the survey of Marias Pass, in reference to which I also gained some general information that satisfied me of the existence of a pass in that quarter. Since I have given my attention to the passes of these mountains, I have been greatly impressed with the fact, from the course of the streams and the general deportment of the country, that there must be a good and practicable pass leading from some branch of the Marias; and at this time I was sanguine that we should find there the best solution of the question of the railroad practicability of the Rocky Mountain range. Governor Stevens’ confident entry for September 5