At Deer Creek Imaging, Montana is more than where our urns are made. The landscapes, mountains and character of our home state have become part of the identity of what we create.
When it came time to name our handcrafted wooden cremation urn styles, we looked to mountain ranges found throughout Montana. Each distinctive urn profile was paired with the name of a Montana range, creating the collection families know today.
The urns themselves were not designed to reproduce the mountains they were eventually named after. The names were chosen to give each style its own identity while maintaining a connection to our Montana home.
But as we began learning more about the mountain ranges behind those names, we discovered something interesting. In several cases, characteristics of the mountains have an unexpected resemblance to the urn style carrying the name.
Some connections are remarkably specific. Others are simply similarities in shape, scale or character. Together, they add another piece of Montana to the story behind our eight wooden urn styles.
If you're still deciding which type of urn may be right for your family, our guide to choosing a cremation urn explains some of the important things to consider.
Bitterroot
The Bitterroot urn takes its name from one of western Montana's most distinctive mountain ranges. The Bitterroot Mountains form a long north-south range along the Bitterroot Valley.
One of the range's defining characteristics is the series of deep, roughly parallel canyons cutting into its eastern side. Many of these valleys were shaped by glaciers, leaving dramatic cuts in the mountain landscape.
Looking at the Bitterroot urn today reveals an interesting coincidence. Its lower molding contains two primary sections with deep, defined cuts, creating one of the more detailed trim profiles in our collection. Those pronounced sections bring to mind the deep canyons cutting into the eastern side of the Bitterroot Mountains.
The name has another distinctly Montana connection. The mountains and valley share their name with the bitterroot flower, Lewisia rediviva, a plant with a long history in the region that became Montana's official state flower in 1895.
What began simply as the name of a Montana mountain range turned out to have several fitting connections to the urn that carries it.
Beartooth
The Beartooth urn takes its name from the rugged Beartooth Mountains and the high-elevation plateau that characterizes much of the range.
The Beartooth's combine broad, elevated landscapes with rugged peaks and rock formations. The name itself is associated with distinctive formations whose appearance resembles the teeth of a bear.
Although the Beartooth urn wasn't designed to reproduce this landscape, there is an interesting similarity in its overall character.
The Beartooth has a broad, substantial profile with strong horizontal lines, while its defined molding adds sharper details to the otherwise solid form. That combination seems particularly fitting for an urn carrying the name of a mountain range known for both its expansive plateau and rugged formations.
Snowcrest
The Snowcrest urn takes its name from the Snowcrest Range of southwestern Montana, a remote mountain landscape characterized by high ridges and expansive backcountry.
The range has a sense of elevation and isolation that is distinctly different from some of Montana's larger and more heavily traveled mountain areas.
The Snowcrest urn wasn't designed to represent those mountains, but its taller, more elevated profile and prominent upper trim create another interesting similarity. The shape naturally draws the eye upward, giving the urn a sense of height that seems fitting for the Snowcrest name.
Its distinctive silhouette remains recognizable even as different woods and personalization completely change the character of the finished memorial.
Pine Hills
Not every Montana mountain range consists of towering, jagged alpine peaks.
The Pine Hills are a relatively low mountain range east of Miles City. Their highest point, Buck Mountain, reaches approximately 3,327 feet. Rather than dramatic alpine summits, the range is characterized by pine-covered hills that stand distinctly within the surrounding eastern Montana landscape.
That difference is part of what makes the Pine Hills interesting—and it also gives us a different kind of connection to the urn carrying the name.
The Pine Hills urn has a more understated profile that allows the natural character of the wood and personalized artwork to remain prominent features of the memorial.
The similarity isn't about matching shapes. Instead, both show how something can stand distinctly within its surroundings without needing to be the largest or most dramatic.
Highland
Sometimes a name seems to fit better than originally intended.
When we were choosing names for our wooden urn styles, Highland was selected from among Montana's mountain ranges without the urn being designed specifically around the geography of the Highland Mountains.
It wasn't until later that we discovered an interesting coincidence: the highest point in the Highland Mountains is Table Mountain.
That seemed especially fitting because the Highland urn has a distinctive broad, flatter top profile compared with many of our other styles.
It wasn't something we planned—it was simply one of those unexpected connections that made the Highland name feel like it belonged.
Mission Range
The Mission Range urn takes its name from the Mission Mountains of northwestern Montana. Sometimes called the “American Alps,” their rugged peaks rise dramatically above the Mission Valley, with the western face of the range rising nearly 7,000 feet above the valley floor.
The scale of the mountains gives the Mission Range an unmistakable presence on the landscape.
When the Mission Range name was originally paired with this urn, its trim wasn't designed to reproduce the mountains. Looking at the two today, however, there is an interesting similarity in their prominence and scale.
The Mission Range urn has some of the largest and most pronounced trim in our collection. Its molding extends noticeably outward from the main body, creating a broad and substantial profile.
Just as the mountains create an expansive and commanding presence above the surrounding valley, the projecting trim gives the Mission Range urn a prominent silhouette of its own.
It is another connection that wasn't planned when the style was named, but one that makes the name seem especially appropriate today.
Crazy Mountain
The Crazy Mountain urn takes its name from the Crazy Mountains of south-central Montana.
The Crazies stand apart from the main Northern Rockies as an isolated mountain range, yet they have a distinctly rugged alpine character. Nearly vertical slopes lead toward high summits and windswept ridges, with numerous pinnacles reaching above 10,000 feet.
The Crazy Mountain urn has a similarly distinctive character. Its more sharply defined profile and pronounced changes in trim seem particularly fitting for a range characterized by steep slopes, high pinnacles and rugged terrain.
There is another interesting parallel as well.
Just as the Crazy Mountains stand apart geographically, the Crazy Mountain urn stands somewhat apart within our collection. Rather than using the layered memorial designs available with many of our other styles, Crazy Mountain can showcase the natural wood, personalized engraving or hand-painted artwork.
Its individuality makes the Crazy Mountain name feel especially appropriate.
Bighorn
The Bighorn urn takes its name from the Bighorn Mountains, an extensive Rocky Mountain range stretching through northern Wyoming into southern Montana.
Unlike some of the unexpected geographic similarities we discovered with our other urn names, the connection between the Bighorn Mountains and the Bighorn urn is simpler.
The Bighorn name gives the style its connection to the Montana landscape, while the urn itself has a distinctive cleaner, smoother lower trim with fewer intricate cuts than some of the other styles in our collection.
That smoother molding creates a flowing profile and allows the natural character of the wood and the personalized front of the urn to become prominent parts of the finished memorial.
Not every mountain name needed to produce an unexpected geographic connection. Sometimes the Montana name simply became part of the identity of the style that carries it.
Eight Styles, Each With Its Own Character
The similarities between our urns and their namesake mountain ranges weren't what originally determined their designs. That's part of what makes discovering some of these connections so interesting.
From Table Mountain and the broad, flatter-topped Highland, to the deep canyon-like cuts of the Bitterroot, the expansive trim of the Mission Range, and the distinctive individuality of Crazy Mountain, each style has developed a character of its own.
And just as Montana's landscapes can change dramatically from one mountain range to another, the appearance of each urn can change depending on the wood and personalization selected.
Natural wood grain, layered memorial artwork, engraving, full-color photo panels, military honors, 3D Carving and hand-painted artwork can all help create a memorial that reflects an individual's life and memories.
The urn style provides the foundation. The choices made afterward are what make it personal.