The land around Kootenai Falls has been explored and used for thousands of years by the Kootenai or Tunaxa People. The Kootenai tribe made up of seven bands, two in U.S. and five in Canada.

European traders and surveyors were lured to the region in the early 1800s by the land, abundant wildland and adventure. In 1808, during the fur trade period, David Thompson and four other men in a large canoe, put ashore in rains and high winds at the head of the falls Thompson described as “heavy, long falls between 2 steep hills.” Not able to run the falls they portaged or carried their canoes and loads across land which took approximately 15 trips of 1.5 hours each!

Father Pierre DeSmet, a Jesuit Missionary, explored the region between 1842 and 1847. His description of the surrounding area described it as “a smiling and accessible valley.” This positive opinion changed as he moved farther upstream and had to make an eight mile portage around the falls. He mentions making the crossing in a “quadrupedal position,” meaning that he was crawling on his hands and knees!

After the early explorers, the first development in the

Kootenai Valley began with the construction of the Great Northern Railroad. Several potential routes were surveyed to cross the Rocky and Cascade Mountains to the Pacific coast. The northern railroad route was selected and ran along the Kootenai River, from Flathead Lake, on to Spokane, Washington. Production of the ties alone, cut from larch and fir, created a new industry since untreated timber only lasted 5 to 10 years. The railroad line, following the south bank to the Kootenai River, reached Libby in April 1891.

The original highway, along the Kootenai River, was built between 1912 and 1915 and was called the Great Parks National Automobile Highway. It was envisioned, according to the Lincoln County Commissioners Proceedings, to “open a wagon highway between the east and the west, cutting the country through the center.” A Western News article announced the coming of a “magnificent automobile road.” The anticipated one year construction stretched into three, making this the most expensive stretch of highway built in the northwest! The two remaining segments of the old highway can still be accessed as a trail from Highway 2. The new highway was completed in 1934.

The highway and the railroad continue to bring travelers and explorers like you to enjoy the beautiful Kootenai River Valley.

The Milwaukee Road faced the daunting task of drilling a tunnel 23 feet high, 16 feet wide and 1.7 miles long into Idaho.

It was a damp, dark, dirty dig. After the approaches were prepared in 1906, and a faltering start in 1907, work began in earnest in 1908. East and west crews toiled around the clock in wet, miserable conditions, and at their best could tunnel 20 feel a day. A company official remembered that:

“Men were hard to keep as the work was disagreeable and hard. Several large veins of water were encountered and at times the working conditions were almost unbearable.”

It took 750 men--400 tunneling inside, 200 outside removing the dirt and rock, and 150 running the dig’s power plant yards--two and a half years to complete.

The steam-driven electric power plant set up four miles away in Taft, Montana powered both ends of the dig. Compressed air provided safe, smokeless power to the giant steam shovels that loaded the blasted, broken rock into electric rail cars for removal.

…and Historians Trace the History along the Trail.

When the Milwaukee Road abandoned its route over the Bitterroot Mountains, salvage companies stripped the line of all the rails, ties, signals, posts and everything else of value. The small fragments left behind are the remains of one of America’s proudest railroads.

From 1907 to 1911 thousands of people lived, worked and played in this secluded part of the Bitterroot Mountains. They constructed a railroad while leaving faint signs of their own passing.

Today, you may see archaeologists digging and sifting along the Route of the Hiawatha looking for clues about people and places not found in written documents.

Historical research and archaeological field work helps breathe lire into the history of the Milwaukee Road years.

Artifacts tell a story if they are found in the context in which were used. It is illegal to remove or destroy artifacts from the Route of the Hiawatha Trail. This preserves the history of the Milwaukee Road for everyone to enjoy.

Buried beneath busy Interstate 90 in the valley below are the bones of what the Chicago Tribune in 1909 named “the wickedest city in America”.

This “den of iniquity” sprouted up when the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad began building the 1.7-mile long St. Paul Pass (Taft) Tunnel. Between 1907 and 1909 the town consisted of twenty-seven saloons, two theaters/dance halls/saloons, a butcher shop, a general store, a drug store, a hospital, and a hotel. Railroad construction facilities scattered along the south side of the tracks, included a material yard, shops, offices, barns, warehouses and powerhouse. No one ever took an accurate census of the town, but one source said “Women of the underworld, gamblers, etc., flocked to the “mushroom” railroad town, and it was soon a place of about 1,000 inhabitants”.

The town survived near riots, panics, floods, a fire in 1908 that destroyed half the businesses and the great 1910 fire which burned everything down except the tough old Taft Hotel. Sixty years later, bulldozers finally flattened it to make way for the new interstate.

“Prostitutes, popularly known as “canaries,” were a diverse collection. One named Dago Red, was famous for taking on thirty-eight Montenegrans one night, while another was a young woman who spent the summer in a Taft salon and the winter back east teaching school. Then, there was Pee Wee Jack, who weighed 250 pounds and had a parrot that she had taught to say, “Do you want to go to bed?” Montana Magazine

The Last Transcontinental Railroad

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway’s Pacific Extension survived for 71 colorful years. Racing silk trains sped along the route, and long, rumbling troop trains carried men and materiel through four wars.

The Milwaukee’s famed electric locomotives hosted presidents and celebrities and showcased the streamlined Olympian Hiawatha passenger train.

The Route of the Hiawatha Rail-Trail, traces the most costly and difficult to build section of the railroad from Chicago to Tacoma.

Today, thousands enjoy traveling over this scenic, historic trail helping keep alive the spirit of the Milwaukee Road.

“The whole twenty-five miles of railroad…between Avery and the Taft Tunnel was swept by a consuming blast of fire, so hot that pick handles lying in the open beside the track were utterly consumed.” - Elers Koch, Forest Supervisor

With fires raging in Idaho and Montana and seemingly closing in on all sides of numerous towns, the railroad was the lifeline for escape. Engineer John Mackedon and his fireman rode west toward Avery surrounded by fire and worried they would not make it out alive.

Suddenly the emergency call came in. More fires sent men, women and children fleeing from their homesteads and logging camps to huddle on the railroad platform in Falcon, 64 miles northeast of Avery. They were begging to be rescued.

Backing the train into Falcon, Mackedon discovered buildings and railcars already on fire. Everyone rushed toward the engine in a panic. Mackedon spotted a boxcar that was not completely ablaze and told the frightened crowd to douse the fire and quickly climb aboard. After escaping Falcon, he stopped twice more to put out fires on the bridges in his path. Mackedon and his fireman finally saved the stranded refugees by taking them into a tunnel to wait out the fire.

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.

“Fires of yesterday and last night have swept practically all the country from Avery to St. Regis. Nothing could have lived in the mountains last evening except for the tunnels.” - E. J. Pearson, Chief Engineer, Puget Sound Railroad

Fleeing from the fires, people jumped into rivers, sheltered in mine shafts or ran for their lives. Others chose escape on the railroad, but sometimes even the trains could not move faster than the fires. An engineer named C. H. Marshall tried to stop for everyone stranded along his line, but soon found it too dangerous to continue. He turned the train and sped toward a tunnel with the railcars literally smoking from the intense heat. Marshall remembered the deafening roar of the fire with heat so intense that no one on the train could even stand upright. Remarkably, all of his passengers made it out alive.

Another train found safety in the nearly two-mile-long Taft Tunnel. As you enter the tunnel, imagine the incredible noise, fear and heat that the men, women and children on board experienced as they waited in this dark refuge for the raging fire to pass.

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.

“All that remained was to salvage what material that could be salvaged from the disaster, and reorganize for a new start.” - Clarence B. Swim, Assistant Forester

As the railroad operated rescue trains, Missoula residents met the refugees at the station offering food, clothing and lodging. When the rains came and the fires died down, the relief committee provided tents and supplies so families could return to rebuild their homes and lives. In spite of the widespread devastation, most western Montana communities rose again after the 1910 Fires.

The forests proved equally resilient. After the fall rain came the winter snow followed by new life in spring. Wildflowers bloomed in the summer, and shrubs and trees thrived and grew. Each year the landscapes progressively recovered as they always do after a fire. The fledgling Forest Service also healed over time, renewing its commitment to the protection of the nation’s forests and investing in research to better understand fire.

These early 20th century men believed they could stop all fires if they just worked hard enough. The 1910 Fires changed everything.

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.

“The fire by this time was an awe-inspiring spectacle, the whole horizon to the west was aflame and the noise caused by the falling timber was terrific.” - Roy A. Phillips, Lolo Forest Guard

One of the most devastating fire seasons in the history of the United States began like any other. The 1910 Fires started with smoldering campfires, sparks from locomotives and a few lightning-caused fires. The many small fires grew larger and spread quickly. When the ferocious winds hit in late August, witnesses said the mountains roared.

As flames swallowed up the mountains and valleys around them, the 200 residents of Taft rolled whiskey barrels into the street and dismissed the young forest rangers trying to recruit them to help save their town. Finally facing the deadly threat of the fires, most of these people quickly boarded trains for Missoula, leaving their emptied town in flames.

Exploring the area that once was the site of Taft, imagine a wall of fire raging down the mountain, ash and cinders falling all around you like snow and the sky darkening to an eerie yellow. Can you hear the mountains roar?

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.

“With the cinders and ashes falling all around him, and so dark that he could not see his horse’s head at three o’clock in the afternoon, [Barringer] rode up to the face of the fire…[and] collected his scattered crews….” - Elers Koch, Forest Supervisor

Only five years old when the fires struck, the fledgling U.S. Forest Service had no organized fire crews, relying instead on the young rangers committed to protecting the nation’s new National Forests. They hired any able-bodied man from the logging and railroad crews, even knocked on doors to beg men to join the fight. They recruited immigrants right off the trains and gathered inmates from local jails.

It was never enough. The fires chased men from camps, blinded their horses and blocked their escapes. Crews huddled in creek bottoms and holes in the ground and hid in caves desperately seeking a place to save themselves from the deadly heat and gas in the scorching fire. These young courageous men did all they could but were fighting against a force of nature in a battle that could not be won.

As you see the burned snags and open meadows that now exist where hearty stands of trees were consumed in the inferno, remember those brave men. They walked here, too.

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.

Once a critical part of the longest electrified railroad in the world, the broken concrete foundation to your left is all that remains of the two-story, brick East Portal Substation.

Essentially a gigantic electric vault, East Portal was the largest of 22 substations constructed along the Milwaukee Road’s electrified portion of the main line from Harlowton, Montana to Tacoma, Washington. East Portal was one of four substations given gabled roofs to shed deep snow. Built in 1915, salvagers in the early 1980s tore the building down for its valuable brick.

The substation housed three transformers and three powerful generators which converted 100,000 volts of alternating current from Thompson Falls Dam into 3,000 volts of direct current. This energy provided the power to propel electric locomotives over the Bitterroot Mountains.

Substation automation beginning in the early 1950s allowed East Portal operators to remotely control three adjacent substations. The Milwaukee cut back the three-man crews at these remote controlled substations to reduce labor costs.

Because of fluctuations in the 3,000-volt system at each substation, substation operators made volt meter and ammeter recordings showing the output over each 24-hour period.Because of fluctuations in the 3,000-volt system at each substation, substation operators made volt meter and ammeter recordings showing the output over each 24-hour period.

This volt meter recording made at East Portal on May 10, 1969 shows the higher voltage made by supplying current to distant trains or regenerating electric locomotives returning power to the substation. Lower voltages occurred when heavy trains were motoring upgrade.

"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.

Creation of the National Forest Service in 1905 brought Elers Koch, one of the nation's first professional foresters, to inspect and evaluate the Forest Reserves of Montana and Wyoming. Appointed Forest Supervisor of the Bitterroot and Lolo National Forests in 1907, Koch happened upon the abandoned homestead of a German settler named Savennach. He thought it a perfect spot to establish a tree nursery. Work began in 1908 and just as the first pine seedlings were ready for transplant in 1910, fire swept through the region scorching 3 million acres of timberland. The nursery was destroyed, but the disaster influenced Forest Service policy, making fire prevention and conservation its primary mission. Reforestation of burned and logged areas figured prominently in that goal. Savenac Nursery was ideally situated along two railroad routes and the historic Mullen Road ran right through the property. The nursery was immediately rebuilt. Circa 1912 national road improvements incorporated the new Yellowstone Trail into this segment of the Mullan Road and in 1916, Savenac shipped several million seedlings to the vast Northern Region. The Civilian Conservation

Corps rebuilt and modernized the facility a final time between 1932 and 1948. Savenac became the largest tree nursery in the northwest producing up to twelve million trees annually. The nursery operated until regional reorganization brought closure in 1969. Savenac Nursery, where much of the theory and practice of silviculture was pioneered, reflects the conservation ethic of the Forest Service.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The nearby Bad Rock Trail was an important route for the aboriginal people who inhabited northwest Montana. The first documented account of the trail was by North West Company trader David Thompson in 1809. Located within sight of the company's trading post, Saleesh House, he reported that it was the scene of many battles between the Kootenai, Salish and the Blackfeet people. Over the ensuing years, the trail became a much cured obstacle on the rod that led up the Clark Fork. It was used by a parade of western notables, including explorers Issac Stevens and John Mullan and by copper-king William A. Clark. Shortly after crossing over Bad Rock in 1841 Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet wrote "I had before seen landscapes of awful grandeur, but this one supposed all others in horror. My courage failed at the first sight."

In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railway blasted away portions of the trail to complete its transcontinental line. The process was repeated in 1936 when the Montana Department of Transportation constructed this segment of the highway. Bad Rock Trail continues to be a commanding presence on Highway 200 in northwest Montana.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

About 15,000 years ago, this area was covered by huge glaciers which formed unique geological formations throughout the valley called drumlins or hills composed of glacial till deposited beneath the glaciers. Ice periodically dammed up the Kootenai River creating a vast inland lake.

The Kutenai Indians inhabited the area for centuries, growing a form of tobacco on the plains near the river and giving the area its name.

Trade in this region was initially dominated by Canadian fur companies. The Kootenai River was first explored in 1808 by the great North West Company trader and geographer David Thompson. The Company carried on a lively trade with the Kutenai, Salish, and other tribes of the inland northwest for decades.

Rich gold strikes on Wild Horse Creek in southeastern British Columbia drew American prospectors to the area in the mid-1860s. Although the gold didn't pan out for many of them, their reports of abundant resources in the region drew miners, cattlemen, farmers and loggers to northwestern Montana. Steamboats plied the river in the 1890s, carrying mail and supplies to the region's inhabitants north of Jennings. The steamboats gave way to the Great Northern Railway in 1901.

Wild Horse Plains is nestled in a circular valley at an elevation of 2,450 ft., drained by the Clark Fork River. Between 70,000 and 130,000 years ago the Bull Lake ice age glaciers dammed the Clark Fork River Valley creating Glacial Lake Missoula. All of the waters from the Clark Fork River drainage backed up to form a Lake. When the ice dam broke, the Clark Fork River carried more water than the combined flow of all the streams of the world.

In the early 1800's Native American tribes traveled through the area. The fertile valley was used for wintering their ponies, harvesting salmon, and holding great councils. Mountain men, trappers, surveyors, and map makers were soon to follow.

White settlers began their movement in the valley in the late 1860's. During the decades to follow farming, ranching, and lumbering would flourish in the valley.

The Northern Pacific Railway arrived in 1881-1883 and the town began to increase in size and importance. Businesses flourished and eventually the name was shortened to Horse Plains and finally to Plains

David Thompson was the first Euro-American to record his travels along this stretch of the river. Early in 1809 he came through searching for an ideal site to establish a fur trading post. Later that fall he built the “Saleesh House” northwest of here near present day Thompson Falls.

For the next fifty years, miners, trappers, and traders passed through this canyon and settlers began homesteading the Wild Horse Plains Valley, twelve miles down river. In the late 1880’s a railroad was completed, linking Missoula with Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. This connected the Puget Sound and Lake Michigan and the number of settlers moving west dramatically increased.

Paradise, Almost

Across the river rest the ruins of an old homestead established in the early 1900s. It seems ideally located, but no road led to the site. Instead, the residents had to ferry themselves across or follow the perilous railroad track.

Koo Koo Sint

David Thompson, trader and noted geographer, often looked at natural features through a telescope. The name Koo Koo Sint, or sxw cl xlkw ukw usm in the Salish language, was given him. It means “He Who Looks at Stars.”

Erected by Lolo National Forest.

During the last ice age about 15,000 years ago, an enormous glacier pushed down from British Columbia and blocked the Clark Fork River in northern Idaho. The glacier functioned as an ice dam creating the largest glacial lake known to have existed, Glacial Lake Missoula. The lake's waters backed up into the river's drainage in western Montana, creating a body of water comparable to today's Lake Ontario. As the lake filled and water at the ice dam deepened, it caused the lighter glacial ice to float and eventually break up, triggering floods of epic proportions. The water flushed through the Clark Fork drainage west of here enroute to the Pacific Ocean. The torrent scarred the landscape of eastern Washington, creating scablands that still define the landscape. The geologic record indicates that Glacial Lake Missoula filled and emptied on a cyclical basis over a period of about two thousand years. Indeed, the large road cut where the Interstate 90 bridge crosses the Clark Fork River at Nine Mile, ten miles east of here, preserves the record of at least 36 separate fillings of the lake. Other evidence of the glacial floods include ancient ice age shorelines on the mountains around Missoula.

Geo-facts:

• Glacial Lake Missoula was first created about 15,000 years ago when an enormous glacier created an ice dam across the Clark Fork River near present day Sandpoint, Idaho.

• The lake was comparable to the size of Lake Erie or Lake Ontario and covered much of western Montana.

• Glacial Lake Missoula filled and emptied on a regular basis over a period of 2,000 years. Catastrophic floods occurred when the ice dam broke, leaving scars on the landscape in eastern Washington.

• John Mullan built the first engineered road in Montana between 1859 and 1862.

Geo-Activity:

• Count how many times you can see old shoreline on the mountainsides along Interstate 90.

In 1860, 150 men under the command of Lieutenant John Mullan carved a wagon road through the colorful Precambrian mudstones on the mountainside north of here. The road took six weeks to construct and required the use of explosives to blast a route through the rocks. Called the Point of Rocks Segment of the Mullan Road, the road still traces its way across the mountainside above here. In 1908, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) Railroad constructed its transcontinental line through the Clark Fork canyon enroute to Seattle. The railroad also excavated tons of rock to cut its way through these mountains to St. Paul Pass. The old railroad grade, later known as the Route of the Hiawatha for the celebrated passenger train that once used the line, is still evident along the north side of Interstate 90. In 1914, the Yellowstone Trail, blazed by distinctive chrome yellow signs with black arrows, passed through this canyon. The trail became U.S. Highway 10 in 1926. Interstate 90 bypassed it here in 1963.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

The landscape around you has changed since Lewis and Clark first saw it in September 1805. Back then it was the aboriginal territory of the Nez Perce and Salish people. These Native Americans had less impact on natural ecological processes than did the European settlers who followed Lewis and Clark.

European settlers first tried, but failed to build a railroad across these mountains in 1854 (sic). Then, in 1908, the U.S. Government granted the Northern Pacific Railroad alternate sections of land along their proposed railroad route, resulting in a "checkerboard" ownership pattern along Lolo Creek. The railroad was never built, but the Northern Pacific kept the land. Over time, the railroad sold their holdings to various interests and eventually Plum Creek Timber Company came to own most of the private land in the Lolo Creek drainage. The privately owned alternate sections were logged by the timber companies.

In the early 1990's, a few visionaries began dreaming of putting Lolo Creek "back together" and restoring the landscape. When Plum Creek began a transition from logging to selling the land, the Nature Conservancy and Trust for

Public Land worked with Plum Creek and reached an agreement to purchase these and other lands in Montana. Known as the Montana Legacy Project, the Conservancy held these lands until they could be conveyed to public and private conservation owners. In 2010, 29,898 acres of former checkerboard land in the Lolo Creek drainage were conveyed to the Lolo National Forest. The Forest Service began a restoration program to manage these lands in a way more consistent with natural ecosystem processes.

In a sense, this land has come full circle. While it will never be as pristine as when it was the land of the Nez Perce and Salish people, through the Montana Legacy Project, restoration had begun that will restore and sustain this land for future generations.

As of August 2013, the Montana Legacy Project has added 132,699 acres of former Plum Creek Timber Company land in Montana to the National Forest System. About 29,900 acres or almost 47 square miles of those lands are in the Lolo Creek drainage.

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Nez Perce - Nee-Mee-Poo National Historic Trail.

The Ninemile Remount was, at one time, the center for the U.S. Forest Service packing activities in the Northern Rockies. Completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935, the Remount was the home roost for more than 1500 Rocky Mountain Canaries (also known as mules), as well as a prime breeding stock for the Forest Service. Firefighting, trail and fire lookout building, and many other kinds of backcountry work was done with Ninemile packstock wearing US brands on their hips and diamond hitches cinching down their cargo. The pack strings were spurred on by packers who had reputations for never sparing the adjectives when the going got tough.

The Remount's upper hayfield was used to train smokejumpers in the early years of the famous firefighting crews. More often than not, droning Ford TriMotor airplanes had to buzz the field to clear it of grazing livestock before the jumpers could hit the silk.

In 1980, Ninemile was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its traditional architecture and its role in Forest Service, Civilian Conservation Corps and local history. Ninemile is still a working ranger station and pack depot. The home of a number of USFS activities, combining history and practicality. Mules and horses are still run through the chutes and corrals on their way to perform important work in the backcountry. And if you listen very carefully, you can still hear the canaries sing!

Erected by Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This staid old brick building has a rich and colorful history.

The Duncan Samson Block, built in 1910 at a cost of about $32,000, was the third or fourth brick building in the fledgling town of Whitefish. Mrs. Jemima Duncan, a widow who had moved to Whitefish from Kalispell a few years earlier, saw opportunity in constructing a rooming house for employees of the Great Northern Railway, which had just named Whitefish as a division point on its line.

Along the way, she met J.A. Samson, a tie contractor for the railroad, and they were married the same years the building was completed. They set up housekeeping in one of the downstairs apartments. Many of the building's tenants were single young men, and as they married, Mrs. Samson advanced into the real estate business, finding small homes to sell them. Her office was in her apartment.

Although the building always has been primarily an apartment house, over the years it also housed a shoe store, a couple of grocery stores, a succession of chiropractor's offices starting in the 1930s, and a tax preparation business. In 1982, local contractor Gary Tallman bought the building and carried out a major modernization of the housing units, selling them as condominiums. In the 21st Century the Block, still essentially an apartment house, belongs to the owners of eight second-floor apartments and several main-floor businesses, including a coffee shop, a landscape architect and yes, a chiropractor office. Its exterior differs very little from the sturdy brick structure that rose along Second Street more than a century ago. In early 2012, the owners' association financed improvements, readying the venerable building for a new century.

Erected by Stumptown Historical Society and Whitefish Community Foundation.

This venerable building has a long and colorful history as a Whitefish watering place and entertainment center. Called the Dodge House when it was built in 1903, it eventually became known as the Pastime bar, a name it retained for many years, until it was renamed the Bulldog Saloon (in honor of the Whitefish Bulldog high school athletic teams) in the early 1980's. As of 2002, it remained the Bulldog, a flamboyantly decorated sports bar.

In the teen years of the twentieth century, the building was called Houston's Hall, after Dr. Houston, a railroad physician and surgeon who had offices on the second floor. The medical offices later were occupied by other doctors. Occasionally used for boxing matches over the years, the second floor also served as an early meeting place for Masons and the Order of the Eastern Star. The space later fell into disrepair and was used for storage of city Christmas decorations and other items.

Meanwhile the main business survived Prohibition by selling soft drinks, cigars and fruit and offering billiards and pool tables for the recreation of locals, many of them railroaders. In 1933, the Whitefish

Pilot reported that a beer license had been issued to J.L. Akey, the new owner of the Pastime. The Akey family was associated with the Pastime for some fifty years. Earl and Jacqueline (Akey) Schommer were the last of the family to run the establishment, and after another ownership change, it was purchased by Linda and Buck May.

Erected by Stumptown Historical Society and Whitefish Community Foundation.

For most of the 20th century, this corner was the site of the Cadillac Hotel. The Cadillac was not the first hotel in town; that distinction went to the Dodge Hotel, on Central Avenue between First and Second Streets. But with its proximity to the railroad depot, the three-story Cadillac, built in 1907, became a popular hostelry, catering not only to railroaders and passengers but to denizens of Central Avenue bars and gambling places.

In 1922, J.J. Cremans built the New Cadillac Hotel, above right, which was to stand for the nest 72 years. Owners through there years included John Bender, Dick and Martha Zerr, and later their son Jack, three skiers, Nancy Montgomery, Bob Cavill and Jack Tidyman. and Mel and Evelun Stenslie. The Cadillac Bar, which adjoined the hotel rooms on the south, was a town gathering place; an organist there for a short time at mid-century was Joan Smith, who later became Mrs. Ray Kroc, wife of the McDonald's magnate and well-known philanthropist.

The bar and restaurant was rechristened the Hanging Tree in the 1960s, after the book of the same name by author Dorothy Johnson, who was a resident of Whitefish.

The hotel, suffering the effects of old age and disuse, eventually was closed. In 1994, the old brick building was demolished to make way for construction of a modern brewery, the Great Northern Brewing Co. The bar and restaurant later became the Glacier Grande, the Serano's and then Paddle & Axe. In 2006 under new ownership of Bill Foley, it reopened as Craggy Range Bar & Grill.

Erected by Stumptown Historical Society and Whitefish Community Foundation.

Not long after the Great Northern Railway announced its plans for a division point in Whitefish, Presbyterian missionary E. M. Ellis and Kalispell minister Alexander Pringle traveled by bicycle and rowboat to visit the site. Soon after, Reverend Pringle canvassed logging and railroad camps for donations of cash and labor to construct a sanctuary. By December 1903, Whitefish had its first church. The First Presbyterian Church moved several times in the early years. By 1919, it had once again outgrown its building; to accommodate congregants, the church held services in the Masonic Lodge while planning a new house of worship. Under direction of physician and active church member W. W. Taylor, the building committee devised detailed drawings, which the Spokane architectural firm Rigg and Vantyne modified only slightly. The building committee chose a Romanesque Revival style design, considered less ostentatious and more appropriate for a Protestant church than the competing Gothic tradition. Romanesque Revival churches featured masonry construction, heavily arched windows, bands of stylized decoration, and towers—in this case a Norman style square tower that serves as the building’s main entrance. The one-story building featured a large daylight basement with a high ceiling, designed to provide clearance for a full-sized basketball court. Community members donated the large art glass windows ornamenting the sanctuary. Among them are two purchased by Japanese railroad workers for $700 in honor of churchwoman Elizabeth Peck, who taught the men English. A tribute to Peck, the windows also commemorate Whitefish’s once-thriving Japanese community and the church’s long history of community service.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Whitefish served as a division point for the Great Northern Railway from its founding in 1904 until 1955. In 1925, one railroader called it “the most distinctively railroad town on the whole Great Northern system.” The second floor of this 1928 Tudor style building, designed by railroad architect Thomas McMahon, housed the railway’s division offices. Serving as a hub for passenger and freight transportation, the first floor housed the yard office, freight and baggage rooms, warm room, ticket office, general waiting room, telegraph office, men’s smoking room, and ladies’ rest room. Competition from automobiles and trucks had already begun to decrease railroad traffic, so not many depots were built in the 1920s, the height of Tudor popularity; thus Tudor style depots are rare. This depot’s Tudor features include its high pointed roof, stucco and decorative half timbering above clapboard, and multiple groups of tall, narrow windows. Its decoratively carved brackets and rafter tails and second-floor balconies echo similar detailing at Glacier National Park chalets, visually connecting Whitefish to Glacier, a tourist destination widely promoted by the railroad. In the 1980s, Whitefish preservationists worked to preserve this magnificent building, which still serves as a passenger and freight depot. Railroad depots are one of the few types of buildings for which the back (facing the town) is as important as the front (facing the tracks). The stylish façades on both front and back of the Whitefish Depot continue to welcome travelers and reflect the town’s railroad history.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.