Archives West Finding Aid

The first train to reach Montana Territory was the Utah & Northern Railroad, a narrow-gauge line traveling from Utah and reaching Monida in 1881. Soon to follow were many smaller lines built to provide transportation for people and products within Montana, as well as three major built to connect to the Pacific Coast and to exploit Montana’s rich mining and agricultural resources. Railroad construction through Montana presented special problems including the high cost of property, rough terrain (especially the mountains in the west), serious grading, bridging and tunneling requirements, cut-and-fill construction for road beds, and local competitors. For Montana, railroad construction was a boon to the economy by providing thousands of jobs, platting towns, supporting local suppliers and facilities, and opening new country for settlement, especially in the eastern part of the state. The railroad boom, 1909-1916, was fueled by a large-scale promotional campaign designed by the Great Northern, the Milwaukee, and the Northern Pacific railroads to bring settlers to the area. The history of Montana railroads includes many name changes and corporate mergers, with some lines lasting only a very short time.

Below are brief histories of the railroad lines documented in this collection.

Series I: Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad (CM & St. P RR) –The Milwaukee & Waukesha Railroad was founded in Wisconsin Territory in 1847. To reflect its growth, the name was changed in 1874 to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company and was known both as the St. Paul and the Milwaukee. When the company decided to become a transcontinental railroad, a branch line located in central Dakota Territory was the predecessor to the main line which ultimately would reach the Pacific Coast. The Milwaukee competed with the Union Pacific, the Northern Pacific, and the St. Paul, Minnesota & Manitoba (after 1893 the Great Northern) lines. The CM & St. P in Montana was organized in December 1905 and the route selected ran through south central Montana, across northern Idaho, and through Washington to Tacoma. In the early 1900s the Milwaukee established main line division points at Miles City, Melstone, Harlowton, Three Forks, Deer Lodge, and Alberton, and made Lewiston the division headquarters.

Construction crews and equipment reached Montana, near Baker, in December 1907. The westward route was built largely by subcontractors in three sections: Mobridge, South Dakota to Butte; Butte to Avery, Idaho; and Avery to Puget Sound, Washington. Supplies were brought close to construction sites on GNRR and NPRR trains which made it possible for the Milwaukee to be completed in less than four years, a near record time. The section west of Butte started construction in 1908 and other sections were built concurrently. The sections were joined near St. Regis with the final spike put in place east of Gold Creek on May 19, 1909. Branch lines were acquired or constructed including the White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Park Railway which ran from Dorsey to White Sulphur Springs, the Gallatin Valley Electric Railway which ran from Gallatin Gateway to Yellowstone National Park, the North Montana Line which ran from Lewistown to Great Falls, and the Montana Railroad (known as the Jawbone Line) which ran through the Big Belts and provided access to Lewistown and Judith Basin.

The Milwaukee grew and expanded from 1908-1920. Pride of the line’s passenger fleet was the Olympian traveling from Chicago to the Pacific Coast beginning in 1912 and operating for fifty years with electric and then diesel Hiawatha locomotives. Beginning in 1914, the Milwaukee accomplished electrification of 440 miles of rail line between Harlowton and Avery. It was a major innovation in railroading that doubled the tonnage capacity, improved safety, and decreased maintenance expense. Box cab locomotives built by General Electric were used for the first electric train on Rocky Mountain Division in 1915 traveling from Three Forks to Deer Lodge and from Harlowton to Avery in 1916. Years later Little Joes, electric locomotives originally built for the Russian Trans-Siberian line, were acquired and put into service.

However, construction costs for the western extension, massive capital outlay for electrification, and decreased revenues created a financial crisis for the Milwaukee. Decreased revenues were the result of drought years, an early end to building boom in the Pacific Northwest, completion of the Panama Canal, and World War I. By 1924, the railroad’s debts came due and the company went into federal receivership, the first of three major bankruptcies and the largest business bankruptcy in the country. In 1928, the Milwaukee reemerged as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company and though there were some stable years, the company continued to struggle economically. In the late 1940s some smaller branches were discontinued. In 1970 the Burlington Northern rail merger was a significant blow to the Milwaukee and in 1977 the line once again went into bankruptcy. In 1978 the company announced cessation of operation on all lines west of Butte and the following year petitioned to abandon all lines west of Minneapolis. On March 18, 1980, the last Milwaukee train left Tarkio and the line was officially abandoned.

Series II: Great Northern Railroad (GNRR) – In 1878, James J. Hill and a group of Canadian businessmen purchased control of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company that traveled from Minneapolis north to the Red River in Canada. In 1897 this line was incorporated into the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway (called the Manitoba). Under Hill’s leadership, the line was aimed across Dakota toward the Rocky Mountain foothills in central Montana. He believed that the vast prairies along the route could become a rich grain-producing empire and home of many family farms. The Manitoba was pressed westward until reaching Minot in 1886 and the following year huge construction crews began averaging more than three miles of track each day to reach Havre and Great Falls, where the line could connect with the Montana Central Railway (see below) to reach Helena and Butte. In September 1889 Hill and his associates consolidated their holdings into the Great Northern Railroad and in 1890 formally took over the Manitoba. The company recommitted itself to go on to the coast on a northern route, but a pass through the Rockies was needed. In 1889 Hill’s engineer, John F. Stevens, rediscovered the Marias Pass. From there the line turned down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, to Columbia Falls and Kalispell, and then turned north to follow the Kootenai River into the Idaho panhandle. The line reached the Puget Sound in 1893. In 1895 and 1896, following the bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific, Hill and his associates, including banker J.P. Morgan, bought controlling shares of that company and reorganized it under GNRR management.

In 1951, Great Northern introduced the Mid-Century Empire Builder to be the premiere passenger trains traveling between St. Paul and Seattle and to compete with the Milwaukee’s Olympian. The Empire Builder offered streamline design, improved technologies, more speed, and eight new sets of cars including sun parlor observation cars. The GNRR continued to operate in Montana until 1970 when the line changed to the Burlington Northern Railroad. The switch was celebrated in a ceremony on November 7, 1970 when the last GNRR train and first the BNRR train met in Libby.

Photographs of two small Montana lines are included within the GNRR series, the Montana Central Railroad (MCRR) and the Montana Western Railroad (MWRR).

In 1886, Charles A. Broadwater filed articles of incorporation for a new railroad in Montana Territory to be called the Montana Central Railroad. In the following year, the new company contracted with James J. Hill of the GNRR for construction of the line. By 1888, the main line went from Great Falls to Butte through Helena, with construction from Great Falls to Helena completed in November 1887 and from Helena to Butte completed in July 1888. A branch line from Great Falls to Sand Coulee was completed in 1888 and by 1891 on to reach Neihart. The MCRR was dissolved in 1907 and assumed by the Great Northern.

The Montana Western Railroad was a local line that traveled between Valier and Conrad. The line connected with the Great Northern at Conrad.

Series III: Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) – In 1864, the U.S. Congress issued a charter for construction of a Northern Pacific Railroad which would link Lake Superior to the northern Pacific Coast. Instead of giving loans as it had to the Union Pacific, Congress supported the NPRR through the largest land grant in history: 20 sections of land per mile of track in Minnesota and Oregon and forty sections per mile in the Dakota, Montana, and Idaho territories, a total of 44 million acres. In Montana, it totaled 17 million acres and made the NPRR the largest land owner in the territory except for the federal government. The NPRR crossed a generally uninhabited region starting from Pacific Junction, Minnesota in 1870 and reaching the Missouri River at Bismarck in 1873. The NPRR was continually troubled with financial problems, especially during the Panic of 1873. In 1881, Henry Villard took over the railroad and had crews extending the line from both directions: to the east from Washington, Idaho, and along the Clark Fork River in western Montana, and to the west with crews moving the line up the Yellowstone River across Billings, Livingston, the Bozeman Pass tunnel, down the Missouri River to Helena, and west over the Continental Divide. The NPRR’s last spike was driven at Gold Creek, Montana on September 8, 1883. The company never recovered from the 1873 panic and was finally forced into bankruptcy in 1893. During 1895-1896, James J. Hill of the Great Northern, bought controlling shares of the NPRR and reorganized it under GNRR management.

Series IV: Smaller Montana Lines – In addition to the three main lines described above, there were other railroads built and operating in Montana that are documented in this collection.

Burlington & Missouri River Railroad – A spur of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (owned jointly by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies), the Burlington & Missouri River was built in 1900-1901. It originally ran 130 miles from Toluca, Montana to Cody, Wyoming, traveling across 68-miles of right-of-way through the Crow Indian Reservation, along Pryor Creek, through the Pryor Gap tunnel, and into the Big Horn Basin. The line carried mostly livestock (cattle, sheep and horses), commissary supplies for the reservation, and mail. In 1911, 75 miles of the line from Toluca were abandoned.

Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad – In 1892, James J. Hill of the Northern Pacific Railroad assisted Marcus Daly with construction of a railroad to connect the Butte mines with the new Anaconda smelter. The line became the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railroad with service beginning in 1893. The line was built for heavy traffic, using new 75-pound steel rails.

Gilmore & Pittsburg Railroad – The line totaled 120 miles traveling through some of the most isolated country in the Pacific Northwest from Armstead, Montana to Salmon, Idaho. James J. Hill of the Northern Pacific helped to finance the construction of the Gilmore & Pittsburg line in order to invade Edward H. Harriman and the Union Pacific’s territory. The last spike was driven at Salmon in 1910. The line was nicknamed “Get Out and Push” Railroad.

Jawbone Railroad (Montana Railroad Company) – Owned by Richard Harlow, who gave his name to the town of Harlowton, the line ran through the Musselshell Valley of central Montana. Harlow, who was always facing financial problems, leased the line to the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul which needed to build its line between the domains of the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads. Eventually the Milwaukee was able to purchase the Jawbone and build from Harlowton to Butte.

Montana Southern Railroad – William R. Allen (at one time Montana’s lieutenant governor) owned the Boston & Montana Development Company and in 1919 he built the Montana Southern Railroad to haul copper ore from its Elkhorn mines to smelting facilities. The MSR, a narrow-gauge line, ran 40 miles from Elkhorn, traveling through the Wise River Valley to Allentown (later changed to Wise River) and along the Big Hole River, to Divide. In addition to hauling ore, the line also carried agricultural products and passengers, including fishermen going to the Big Hole and Wise rivers. When the mines declined in the 1920s, the MSR was reorganized, but fell victim to the 1930s depression and was closed.

Montana Union Railroad – In 1886 the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad successfully negotiated formation of a jointly-owned standard gauge railroad line, the Montana Union Railroad, specifically for a Butte to Garrison road.

Union Pacific Railroad – The first transcontinental line was the Union Pacific-Central Pacific going from Omaha to Sacramento completed in 1869. After the Union Pacific crossed Utah north of the Great Salt Lake, the company entered into a race with the Northern Pacific Railroad to reach the rich mining regions of Montana. To that end, a rail spur (see Utah & Northern Railroad below) was constructed over the Corinne-Virginia City Road. The Union Pacific was the first railroad to enter Montana and beat the Northern Pacific to Butte with the Utah & Northern Railroad in 1881.

Utah & Northern Railroad – Originally a narrow gauge line, the Utah Northern Railroad traveled north from Brigham City, Utah and reached the Montana border at Monida in 1880. By then, the Union Pacific had assumed control of the line, made it a subsidiary, and changed the name to Utah & Northern Railroad. The line was built into Butte along the Big Hole River and Silver Bow in 1881. The Union Pacific started construction of a new standard-gauge line that would travel from western Wyoming’s rich coal deposits, across Idaho, and on to Portland. The new line was called the Oregon Short Line and crossed the Utah & Northern Railroad line at Pocatello in 1881, and ran from Butte south to Dillon, Armstead, and into Idaho. In 1887, the entire northern part of the Utah & Northern, from Pocatello to Garrison, was converted to standard gauge.

White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Park Railroad – The line was constructed in 1910 and traveled 25 miles south from White Sulphur Springs to Ringling to connect with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.