Yuttahih

Yuttahih belongs to cold, wooded mountain country near the Sweetwater, within the broad system of the Rocky Mountains. The Rockies extend about 3,000 miles in a straight line from western Canada to New Mexico and form the eastern part of the North American Cordillera. They are distinct from the younger Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada farther west.

Across the chain, numerous subranges are separated by high basins and tablelands, while ridges and valleys force travelers to follow passes rather than move directly across the grain of the land. The mountains began to form between 55 million and 80 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, when plates descending beneath the North American Plate produced a wide belt of uplift. Later tectonic movement and glacial erosion cut that uplift into the dramatic peaks and deep valleys visible in that era. People entered the range after the end of the last ice age, but the Rockies have never supported a dense population. Their broken terrain and severe conditions explain why high country such as this could remain an obstacle while lower valleys and passes carried most movement.

European and American activity began with explorers and mountain men seeking furs and minerals. Trading posts supported journeys into the high country, and expeditions gradually mapped river routes across the divide. South Pass became especially important: in 1832 Benjamin Bonneville led the first wagon train across the Rockies there. The wooded mountain environment around Yuttahih therefore belongs to a larger history of glacial landforms, sparse occupation and difficult corridors linking the western interior with the plains.