From this point west to the Idaho line, US Highway 12 and I-90 follows the route of a military road located and constructed in Montana between 1859 - 62 by Captain John Mullan. The road was 624 miles long and connected Fort Benton, Montana, with Fort Walla Walla, Washington. Originally an Indian trail, Mullan mapped the road over the pass in the 1850s. In 1860, it was incorporated into the military road that would bear his name.

The Captain aside from his engineering ability, was a man of considerable insight as evidenced by the following excerpt from his final report. He prophesied “... the locomotive engine will make passage of the ... wild interior at rates of speed which will startle human credulity.” Indeed, two decades later, in 1883, the Northern Pacific Railway constructed its main line over Mullan Pass.

Mullan himself might have been incredulous had he seen the freight train that crossed this divide in 1865. Seven camels, each laden with 600 pounds of flour, made the trek from Helena to the Deer Lodge area mines. One of the less successful experiments in American transportation history, the dromedary carried tremendous loads, was sure footed, had great stamina, but the horses, mules and oxen of the teamsters and mule packers stampeded at the sight and smell of them. The camels were gone from Montana by 1867.

The Mullan Road is carved into the face of the mountains high above the Clark Fork River west of here. Lieutenant John Mullan tried to keep his wagon road as close to the river as possible. But when his work crews ran up against a mountain spur that reached all the way to the edge of the river, he was forced to seek an alternate route. Mullan later wrote that "to make this six-mile cut through rocky spurs was an undertaking that I almost feared to attempt." On May 10, 1860, he assembled his entire work force of 150 citizens and soldiers at the west side of the spur. For the next six weeks, his men dug, whittled, and blasted their way up the mountain side to an altitude of a thousand feet above the river. A premature explosion while clearing a path through the rocks wounded one man and severely stunned another. When completed in June, 1860, the Big Side Cut segment was the most awe-inspiring of the entire 624-mile Mullan Road. A traveler wrote of the Big Side Cut in 1862 that it was "a narrow wagon track which left no room for careless or uncertain driving."

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Mullan Road is carved into the face of the mountains high above the Clark Fork River west of here. Lieutenant John Mullan tried to keep his wagon road as close to the river as possible. But when his work crews ran up against a mountain spur that reached all the way to the edge of the river, he was forced to seek an alternate route. Mullan later wrote that "to make this six-mile cut through rocky spurs was an undertaking that I almost feared to attempt." On May 10, 1860, he assembled his entire work force of 150 citizens and soldiers at the west side of the spur. For the next six weeks, his men dug, whittled, and blasted their way up the mountain side to an altitude of a thousand feet above the river. A premature explosion while clearing a path through the rocks wounded one man and severely stunned another. When completed in June, 1860, the Big Side Cut segment was the most awe-inspiring of the entire 624-mile Mullan Road. A traveler wrote of the Big Side Cut in 1862 that it was "a narrow wagon track which left no room for careless or uncertain driving."

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

"Our work ... from the 16th of August to the 4th of December, 1859 consisted of cutting through this densely timbered section of one hundred miles, building small bridge were required, and grading thousands of places.... the work was heavy, and ... justice cannot be done to the industry and fortitude of the men while mastering this wilderness sections." -- John Mullan, 1863

In July 1859, Lieutenant John Mullan and 230 workers, soldiers, and teamsters began construction on a 624-mile wagon road from Walla Walla, Washington through the Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation on the upper Missouri River in Montana. The topography between Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Missoula Valley was a tangle of towering mountains, serpentine rivers, steep rugged hillsides, low swampy areas, deep ravines, and fallen timbers. Mullan's men constructed 47 bridges across the St. Regis-DeBorgia River between base St. Regis Pass and its confluence with the Clark Fork 28 miles east of here. The road, although primitive, was a triumph of engineering and a tribute to Mullan's engineering ability and his optimism about the future of the Pacific Northwest and Montana. Originally intended as a military road, it was only used in that capacity once, instead parts of it became important emigrant and freight roads in western and central Montana. Unfortunately, the Mullan Road west of Missoula was not heavily used by pioneers because of the difficult terrain. Indeed, within a couple of years after its completion, most of the bridges had washed out and timber and landslides had blocked portions of the road. By the 1870s, the Mullan Road through this area was little more than a pack trail. The road still exists in places through here, high on mountainsides overlooking Interstate 90.

"We started out as early as possible, as we fully realized that for many miles the road ahead of us was mountainous and rough beyond anything yet traversed. The scenery was the wildest ever gaze upon, and grand, if as feeble a world as that can be used to properly express anything in this amazing range of mountains. Up, up, still up we went winding over a trail made barely passable ... wrenching and jolting the wagons terribly, and causing the poor mules infinite misery." -- Randall Hewett, 1862

A Plague Spot of Vice: Taft In 1908, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) Railroad completed its west coast extension along the Clark Fork to Seattle.

The railroad camp of Taft was located near here. Founded in 1907, it became the center of operations for the construction of the railroad's 8,750-foot tunnel through the Bitterroot Divide at St. Paul's Pass. For a little over a year 2,000 men worked day and night boring the tunnel through the mountains. Taft was a wide open town with 27 saloons, gambling halls, and brothels ready to separate the men from their hard-earned pay. In 1909, the Chicago Tribune called Taft the "wickedest city in America." The tunnel completed, the men moved on, leaving the town all but deserted. Most of the town was destroyed in the 1910 forest fire and the rest buried beneath I-90 in 1962.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Within a few steps of this sign the Mullan Road came up Helena Hill from Fort Benton. It wound its way over 600 miles to the head of navigation on the Columbia River at Fort Walla Walla. It was the first federal highway in the Northwest. Covered wagons, stagecoaches and freighters used this route to the gold bonanzas in the mountains of Montana and Idaho. Branches led to Helena, Bannack and Virginia City. The main road continued on west through Missoula and up the Clark's Fork to Spokane, before turning south through the Palouse to the Columbia.

Captain John Mullan started surveying the Mullen Road in 1853 and began construction in 1859 of the 624-mile wagon road that linked Fort Benton to the head of navigation on the Columbia. Indian wars slowed him somewhat, but Mullan opened his route to travel in 1860, years ahead of the transcontinental railroads and at a fraction of the cost of an interstate turnoff.

The Mullan Road began right at the sally port here and ended at Fort Walla Walla. A tourist heading for Spokane retraces hundreds of those miles, but no long contends with Blackfoot Indians. The road's history has faded into forgotten lore, but it was a highway to empire, the fastest land-water route across the continent in its day. Travelers took 47 days on the road, but boarded steamboats at either end where comfort and pleasure promised a safe arrival at either terminus.

Erected by Fort Benton Community Improvement Association.

Fort Benton was the eastern terminus of the Mullan Military Road. Construction of the road began in the summer of 1859 at Fort Walla Walla, the head of navigation on the Columbia River. Lieutenant John Mullan of the U.S. Topographical Engineers commanded a work detail of 140 civilians and soldiers that hacked, blasted, and carved a road eastward toward Fort Benton through northern Idaho and western Montana. The U.S. Army intended the road to carry troops and supplies from the upper reaches of the Missouri River across the Continental Divide to the Pacific Northwest. Mullan needed to complete the road to Fort Benton by August 1, 1860 in order to meet troops there and then escort them back across the newly completed road.

On July 2, 1860, the steamboat Chippewa, and Key West deposited 300 soldiers under the command of Major George Blake at the Fort Benton levee. Among the troops was Lieutenant August Kautz, a Military Academy classmate of Mullan. The soldiers anxiously awaited the arrival of Mullan, who was ordered to lead them back across the newly completed road to Walla Walla. After nearly a month, Mullan and his men arrived at Fort Benton, the road completed on time and a little over budget. Mullan left Fort Benton a few days ahead of Blake's recruits, improving the road in advance of the soldiers. After marching over two months and covering more than 600 miles, the soldiers reached Walla Walla. It was the only time the Mullan Road was used as a military road.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Surveyor and Constructor of The Military Road from Fort Benton, Montana to Walla Walla, Wash completed 1862

Erected under the Auspices of

Montana Society of Pioneers

Contributed by The son and daughters of

Captain James H. Mills of Deer Lodge City b in honor of Their Father's intimacy and

Friendship with and for Captain John Mullan Road Builder and Frontiersman

Deerlodge City -- (missing) 1916

Erected by Montana Society of Pioneers.

Fort Owen’s log and adobe walls witnessed dramatic changes as the Bitterroot Valley emerged from remote wilderness to settled agricultural community. The Jesuit fathers who had established St. Mary’s Mission nearby in 1841 closed their doors in 1850, and trader John Owen purchased the property. Owen operated and expanded St. Mary’s mills, cultivated the fields, enlarged the fort, and kept a well-stocked trade room, thereby transforming the mission compound into a vibrant trading post complex. A man of many talents, Owen also served as agent to the Flathead Nation from 1856 to 1862, and for a time the fort was agency headquarters. Owen and his Shoshone wife, Nancy, created a refined and comfortable haven in the vast timberland, extending gracious hospitality to Indians, traders, trappers, missionaries, settlers, and travelers. With the 1860s came gold-seekers and a fresh clientele, but the newly completed Mullan Road by-passed For Owen and trading dwindled. Upon Nancy’s death in 1868, Owen’s mental health deteriorated. In 1872, Fort Owen was sold at sheriff’s sale to Washington J. McCormick, who operated the fort’s mills until 1889. In 1937, the Fort Owen site was donated to the State of Montana, and the donors sponsored stabilization and partial reconstruction of its sole remaining building, the East Barracks. Archaeological investigations initiated in 1957 by the University of Montana continued through 1980, exposing the fort’s walls and foundations. Since 1971, the Stevensville Historical Society has been instrumental in interpretive reconstruction, continued stabilization, and maintenance of this noteworthy site.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

"Come bring your lunch basket and you friends and have a good time," urged Montana newspapers in June 1897. The Fort Shaw Indian School's year-end exercises would begin at 1:00 p.m. with a band concert, followed by field games, recitations, and songs. And though the game of "basket ball" was invented only a few years earlier, the Indian girls at the Fort Shaw School were already beginning to form an invincible team.

Under the leadership of Dr. William H. Winslow, Fort Shaw's first Superintendent, the Indian boarding school was established in 1892 by the Department of Interior, Indian Services. Children representing several Native tribes came from all parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho to attend school at Fort Shaw.

Originally a military post, Fort Shaw was established in 1867 and named for Colonel Robert G. Shaw. It served to protect settlers and travelers on the Mullan Road. This regiment of soldiers (shown left) was stationed at Fort Shaw during the last years before its closure in 1891.

Erected by Sun River Valley Historical Society.

A steeply pitched roof and a Gothic-arched attic window embellish this Folk Gothic style farmhouse, built by Francis L. Worden in 1874. Worden left New York in 1852 for adventure in California, traveled to Panama, clerked for Washington’s Territorial Governor Isaac Stephens, and served as postmaster at Walla Walla. In partnership with C. P. Higgins, Worden came to Montana in 1860 to establish a trading post along the Mullan Road. In 1864 Worden, Higgins, and David Pattee built the Missoula Mills Company and thereby founded Missoula. Worden and his wife, Lucretia, moved into this home, then well outside town, where they raised seven children. Worden planted maple trees from his native Vermont in the yard and along the country road, endowing East Pine Street with a lasting legacy. He was a territorial legislator and county commissioner and helped develop Missoula’s water system. Lucretia organized the Western Montana National Bank in 1889. The charming home, modest like its builder, remained in the Worden family until 1946. Family members re-purchased it in 1994, saving it from demolition. It is Missoula’s oldest standing residence.

Erected by

Montana National Register Sign Program.