The Ramshorn

The Ramshorn. . Jutting like the topsail of a ship from beyond the apparent horizon. a tip of the Ramshorn is seen. It serves to remind the viewer of the Absarokas, a cragged mountain range broader and longer than the Wind Rivers but slightly less elevated. These mountains take their name from Indians identified as Crows or Ravens in the Journals of Lewis and Clark. Fur traders adopting that appellation passed it along to subsequent generations excepting only Absarokas themselves who, echoing forefathers, Anglicize their name to Bird People. , Tip rather than peak is used advisedly; there are peaks in the Absarokas but they are not a dominant feature of that range. Originating in a typical anticlinal fold, the Absarokas have been capped by lava strata measuring to thousands of feet, a geological evolvement known as a volcanic pile. Accordingly, their summits tend to be flat although simultaneous erosion throughout periods of flowing lave prohibited the forming the forming of an all encompassing tableland. Continued erosion has resulted in a range marked by deep canyons, precipitous ridges, notched passes and escarpment delimited plateaus. Summits rising above a plateau's general elevation are composed of harder materials and sometimes indicate proximity of a former lava fissure. The Ramshorn is one such plateau but its name derives from its escarpment -- 3,000 feet of cliffs and talus slopes, curving for miles around its southwestern flank like the horn of a mountain ram. , It is appropriate that this mountain be named Ramshorn. The Absarokas offer habitat to a variety and an abundance of wildlife but escarpments and plateaus, producing grass and browse swept free of snow by winter gales, make ideal mountain sheep ranges. Trails established by sheep-eating Shoshone, now followed by other wilderness enthusiasts, attest to mankind's fascination with the wild sheep of the Absarokas.