Berne Roadside Park

Bad Rock Canyon was a popular stopping place for tourists either taking a break from the road or wanting to wet a fishing line in the Flathead River. Some stopped just to enjoy the scenic beauty of the narrow canyon. A natural spring provided water to locals and, during the early days of automobiles, helped cool more than a few overheated radiators. In 1954, James and Hazel Simpson donated this wide spot in the road to the Montana Highway Department on the condition that it be named Berne Roadside Park for her uncles, Billy and Mike Berne. Brothers Billy and Mike Berne came to the upper Flathead area in 1889 or 1890 from Butte, where they both had been employed as miners. Although they came to the valley to speculate on coal deposits in the North Fork of the Flathead River country, they instead found better opportunities in the arrival of the Great Northern Railway. The brothers manufactured brick for many of the new buildings in recently platted Columbia Falls. In 1906, Billy purchased a small farm from Frieda Herrig at the mouth of Bad Rock Canyon and spent the rest of his life farming and promoting the area for tourism. Mike worked as a farmer for most of his life west of Columbia Falls. The Montana Highway Department developed Berne Roadside Park as one of the state’s first rest areas in 1956.