Railroads Transform Montana: Impact on Indigenous Communities, Transportation, and Development

1. Why did railroads want to come to Montana? Why did many Montanans want railroads? How did railroads affect Montana Indians? How did railroads change life for all Montanans? Railroads Transform Montana Detail of the map, Great Falls Montana Its Situation, Surroundings, Resources, Railroad and River Connections, 1893. All images courtesy Montana Historical Society unless otherwise noted.

2. Examples of Pre-Railroad Travel The Stump Horn family with a horse travois, Northern Cheyenne, 1890s The Steamboat Rosebud on the Missouri River, 1886 Helena, ca. 1879

3. Fort Benton to Virginia City 265 miles traveling at 60 miles per hour = 4 hours and 25 minutes by car Image from Google Earth

4. On an average trip from Helena to Virginia City, stagecoaches, like this one photographed in Wolf Creek Canyon, traveled at less than 6 miles per hour.

5. Stagecoach en route from Divide to Wisdom, date unknown • Trip Variables • Terrain • Weather • Weight • Road quality • Quality of stock

6. Before railroads, getting supplies to mining camps was a difficult undertaking. Goods delivered by steamboat, waiting to be loaded onto freight wagons, Fort Benton docks, 1879

7. Eight oxen could haul three linked wagons carrying a total of approximately twelve thousand pounds. Bull Team on the Whoop-Up Trail oil painting by Lee Kerr

8. Montana Indians used some imported goods, but not as many as Euro-Americans. Can you find the trade goods in this painting? Preparing and Cooking Camas, by Blackfeet artist Gary Schildt

9. Pack horses carried supplies for trappers like the one Charles M. Russell imagined in his oil painting, Free Trapper.

10. “Red River carts” could carry 600 to 900 pounds. Impressive—but much less than can be carried on a train!

11. The fur trade post of Fort Union, on the Montana/North Dakota border, was active long before the railroad arrived. Fort Union on the Missouri, hand-colored aquatint by Karl Bodmer ca. 1845

12. Mining increased the demand for goods—and the need for efficient transportation. Wagon Trains at Helena, Montana, hand-colored etching by W. M. Cary, 1878

13. “The iron key has been found to unlock our golden treasures … With railroads come population, industry and capital, and with them come the elements of prosperity and greatness to Montana.” From an editorial in the Helena Independent, July 1875, five years before the first railroad entered the territory Jawbone Railroad, Sixteen Mile Canyon oil painting by R. E. DeCamp

14. Increased development made it much harder for Indians to support their families through hunting and gathering. Encampment of the Piekann [Piegan] Indians, hand-colored aquatint by Karl Bodmer ca. 1845

15. Would this be a good place to hunt game? Alder Gulch, ca. 1870

16. How much of Montana was Indian land... In 1850 before the arrival of Euro-Americans? In 1870 before the railroad came? 1890 after the arrival of railroads and large numbers of Euro-Americans?

17. Montana tribes lost millions of acres between 1870 and 1890, in part due to the railroad.

18. Montana Railroads 1881: The Utah and Northern connects Butte to the America’s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific, at Corinne, Utah. 1883: The Northern Pacific Railroad completes its transcontinental line. 1887: The Great Northern Railway builds across northern Montana, reaching Seattle in 1893. 1907: The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific (the Milwaukee Road) enters southeast Montana, completing its transcontinental line in 1909.

19. Montana’s first transcontinental railroad, the Northern Pacific, crossed the Crow Reservation. Driving the Golden Spike, oil painting by AmédéeJoullin, presented to the Montana State Capitol in 1903

20. Montana’s second transcontinental line, the Great Northern Railway, created the Hi-Line. This trestle near Glacier National Park is just one example of its many engineering feats. Two Medicine Trestle, 1891

21. The Milwaukee Road was Montana’s third transcontinental railway. A Milwaukee Road train, powered by an electric engine, at the Three Forks depot

22. Short lines filled in the gaps. By 1910, Montana nearly 4,300 miles of track.

23. Railroads brought about rapid population growth.

24. Railroads made large-scale, industrial mining and smelting possible. Neversweat Mine, Butte, ca. 1900,courtesy World Museum of Mining

25. Without trains, Montana’s timber industry would not have grown so big. Railroad ties stacked on a Union Pacific flatcar

26. The railroad founded Glendive (shown here about 1950) and many other towns along its tracks.

27. Railroads helped towns grow into cities. A parade in Butte, 1939 Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

28. Can you find the tepees and the railroad tracks in this 1890 photo of the Clark Fork River? What, if anything, did Indians gain from the coming of the railroad?

29. The railroads started Montana’s tourism industry. Which railroad sponsored this advertisement?

30. The railroads promoted homesteading, bringing thousands of people to eastern Montana. Do you know why? Which railroad published this promotional brochure?

31. Railroads transformed everyday life. For example, you could order lobster in Montana restaurants in the 1890s. Christmas Day menu from the Capital Restaurant, Helena, 1897

32. Circuses were only one form of exotic entertainment that trains brought to the Treasure State. Billings, August 1912

33. The Great Northern Oil painting by Tucker Smith What other events—if any—changed Montana as much the railroad?