The Beartooth Plateau

The Stillwater Complex the panel names is why a mine works the plateau's north flank. Its J-M Reef, mined at Stillwater West near Nye since 1986 and at East Boulder south of Big Timber, is the only primary source of platinum and palladium in the United States, about three percent of the world's supply. South Africa's Sibanye bought the mines in 2017 for $2.2 billion. In September 2024, with palladium below $1,000 an ounce from about $2,300 two years earlier, the company announced some 700 layoffs and paused Stillwater West.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Smith Mine — 3.0 mi
  Rusting buildings beside the highway, all that is left of the mine where Montana's worst coal disaster emptied a valley.
• Beartooth Highway — 12 mi
  A road over the top of the world, built because a coal town's mines closed and it needed tourists instead.

More markers nearby

• Red Lodge — steps away
• The Red Lodge Country — steps away
• Liver-Eating Johnston's Cabin — 1.2 mi
• The Smith Mine Disaster — 3.1 mi