Hayden's 6th Annual Report of the Geological Surveys of the Territories for 1873, in which the name South Bowlder Range is mentioned, a reference to the largest river in the north part of the mountains.

John Willard [4] says "Indians and early trappers found a root in these mountains that, when dried and mixed with larb, made a suitable substitute for real tobacco.

Tansley, Shaffer and Hart (1933)[5] attribute the practice of drying a species of mullein and mixing it with kinnikinic (bearberry) to replace tobacco to John Edwards, a prospector from Flint Creek, in the 1860s.

[7] Significant gold deposits appear to be related to the intrusion of the Tobacco Root Batholith and northwest-trending faults in the Pony area and elsewhere.

The northern flank of the Tobacco Roots consists of thrusted and folded sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks ranging from Proterozoic Belt Supergroup strata to Cretaceous Elkhorn Mountains Volcanics.

[9] There are 244 terrestrial vertebrate species that are found within the North Tobacco Root Mountains and Foothills including whitetail and mule deer, elk, and black bears.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Park's classification of native species with greatest need of conservation[10] including the western toad, flammulated owl, bald eagle, Townsend's big-eared bat, grizzly bear,[11] and Canada lynx, which are all threatened by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, especially as a result of population growth/development.