For over ninety years, residents of this area were served by a large steel truss bridge that crossed the Milk River just northeast of here. Built in 1911 by the Illinois Steel Bridge Company of Jacksonville, Illinois, the structure was one of at least six bridges built by the firm in Valley County between 1910 and 1913. This bridge conveyed ranchers and homesteaders living north of the river to the community of Tampico. Established as a water stop on the Great Northern Railway’s main line in the late 1890s, Tampico boomed with the arrival of hundreds of homesteaders to the area beginning in 1910. At its height about 1917, Tampico boasted a population of over 50 people and a substantial business district. By the early Twenties, the town was located on the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway, a route that was eventually re-named U.S. Highway 2. A 1921 guidebook to the highway stated there were good camping sites along the Milk River on the north side of the road near the old bridge. The old highway still exists as a county road on the northeast side of the railroad tracks.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

In 1919, the Duluth, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce sponsored the creation of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway as a memorial to the recent passing of the former president. An early interstate highway, the route stretched 4,000 miles between Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon. A little over 750 miles of the Roosevelt Highway spanned Montana, none of it paved. The Roosevelt Highway Association warned motorists in 1921 that the route between Glasgow and Malta was a partly improved dirt road that was almost impassable because of gumbo in wet weather. Despite that, hundreds of adventurous automobile tourists undertook the difficult road to visit Glacier National Park and other attractions along the way. They had their cars serviced in local garages and stayed in hotels and campgrounds along the way, enriching businesses in the small towns along the Montana High Line. One promoter wrote that the Roosevelt Highway "opens to the tourist the door of the treasure-box of beauties and grandeur and varied scenery of the North continent as no other highway does." In 1926, the Bureau of Public Roads re-designated the route as U.S. Highway 2.

For some, though, it will always be the Roosevelt Highway.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Malta, first known as “Siding 54,” took its place along the Hi-Line in 1887 as the Great Northern Railway opened new opportunities. The railroad heavily promoted the area, and by 1910, Malta was the county seat. Longtime residents Lee Edwards and William McLellan partnered to build a commercial block to serve northeastern Montana. Local architect James Maurice Montgomery’s Western Commercial style design included retail space, ten second-story offices, and basement plumbing and tin shops. The brick building features forty-three feet of plate glass display windows, and Chicago style windows on the upper level reveal the architect’s familiarity with contemporary trends in larger cities. Decorative elements include flat arches, second-story pilasters, recessed panels, and a metal cornice. Inside, hardware stock, originally displayed in golden oak Mission style shelving, covered one side while clothing and furnished goods filled Flemish oak wardrobes and cabinets on the other side. Reminiscent of a bygone era, many of these features remain intact and functional. When the store opened in 1910, Edwards and McLellan handed out long-stemmed asters and gold-lettered brush-shaped souvenirs. Over the decades, the massive inventory included everything from Studebaker cars to Frigidaire refrigerators and RCA Victor televisions. Much more than a mercantile, the store was a community hub. McLellan’s wife, Nettie, assumed part-ownership of the business from 1916 to 1937. Edwards family member Harold Leib ran the store until 1975. Scott and Gina Simanton purchased the building in 2020, operating the upper level as lodging. Their careful restoration and stewardship have assured this Hi-Line landmark a future.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Great Northern Railway spread its tracks along the windswept Montana Hi-Line in the 1890s and the settlement of Chester emerged, named for the first telegraph operator’s Pennsylvania hometown. The rail line was straightened in 1907 and Chester picked up and moved a quarter mile from its original site to the present location. C. M. Atkins founded the First State Bank of Chester in 1909 and this handsome brick building, by far the most extravagant in town at the time, was completed in 1910. The bank served the prosperous agricultural community during the homestead boom. Like other banks across Montana, First State fell upon hard times as crops failed and homesteaders moved on. The bank closed in 1920, but the building continued to serve the community in a myriad of other ways. Over the years it was a residence, rooming house, bakery, pool hall, barbershop, and hospital, where a former lieutenant governor, Allen Kolstad, was born. Although safety dictated the removal of a second-story turret in the 1950s, Ionic columns, swan’s neck brackets, and graceful curved steps remain to frame the canted entrance. The original oak entry doors, pressed metal ceilings, woodwork, and the bank vault are still in place. Representative of small-town banks that once flourished across Montana, the landmark building is a community centerpiece and central to the town’s history. Students of Chester’s graduating class of 1997 researched and prepared the nomination for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in conjunction with the Montana Heritage Project.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The service station industry was still in its infancy when businessman H. Earl Clack began building a network of retail gasoline and bulk oil outlets across the northern plains into the Pacific Northwest. His company headquarters were in Havre, and the orange and green Hi-Power logo could be found during the 1930s in virtually every community along the Montana Hi-Line. Prior to World War II, Clack outlets in Montana comprised the most extensive network of retail stations marketing regionally produced petroleum products. Clack was an early proponent of functional gas station design and one of the first retailers to adopt the modern flat-roof that came into vogue in the early 1930s. A rounded canopy over the pump island and three sets of raised chevrons incorporated into the design are distinctive stylistic additions that established Clack’s corporate identity. This vintage example, first operated by Walter “Timber” Woods in the early 1930s, is one of few remaining in the state. Husky Oil Company acquired Clack assets in 1955, and the station was vacant for several years after 1957. In the early 1960s, the Town of Saco leased the property. The community added a picnic shelter east of the office and repaired the inside facilities so that the former station could be used as a rest stop for weary US 2 travelers.

Erected by Montana Historical Society; Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places.

Water is the life blood of Montana. During the state’s early settlement, the rivers provided transportation and trading routes; later they sustained the livestock and crops of ranchers and homesteaders; and they still provide Montana’s base for agriculture, industry, and tourism. The Milk River that parallels Highway 2 from Glasgow to Hinsdale is one of the most important rivers in the north central part of the state.

One of the earliest Milk River users was Augustin Armel (AKA Hamel) who arrived about 1820. He worked at all the major American Fur Co. posts on the Missouri River until the 1850s. In 1855, he opened Hammell’s House, the first trading post on the Milk River, located about 7 miles southwest of here (near Vandalia). Tom Campbell’s House followed, built near the same site in 1870. Neither lasted very long, and no physical remains of them have been found.

Later comers to this region raised mostly cattle, sheep, and wheat. They needed water on more of the land than was blessed with it and today you can see the irrigation system along Highway 2. The Lower Milk River Valley Water Users Association promoted the construction of the Vandalia Dam and Canal in the early 1900s. Area rancher, H. H. Nelson, interested in attracting settlers, became involved in irrigation after establishing Vandalia in 1904. Nelson was director and superintendent for construction of the dam at Vandalia and the canal that runs from there east to Nashua. The dam was completed in 1917. Nelson’s hopes for a sizable settlement at Vandalia never materialized.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Lewis and Clark National Forest Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt

This memorial was authorized by a Bill introduced in the Congress of the United States of America, by Representative Scot Leavitt, February 1, 1930 and approved by President Hoover on June 2, 1930.

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

… there should be erected at once at every camp, good, substantial, permanent buildings of one, two, three and four rooms for just the 'forgotten man'… There should also be constructed at every camp a building for a restaurant or cafeteria where meals may be obtained at a reasonable price.

The Kalispell Times

October 6, 1932

In the late 1920s, the automobile became affordable for the "Forgotten Man." For the first time, a middle-class American family could see the country without the expense of a railroad trip. Upon completion of Going-to-the-Sun Road in 1932 and Theodore Roosevelt Highway (now US-2) two years earlier, Glacier National Park beckoned a new type of "road-trip" traveler, signaling an end to an era of opulence and the beginning of affordable recreation.

To meet the needs of motorists, the Many Glacier Road was extended a mile west from the Many Glacier Hotel, and the Great Northern Railway was asked to build the Swiftcurrent Auto Camp. It consisted of a campstore and 54 small, spartan cabins arranged in tepee configurations. The camp's location was unobtrusive to its natural setting — a significant departure from the design of the park's earlier grand hotels. The camp was immediately popular with the middle-class. The use of automobiles ultimately resulted in a decline of railway travel and an increase in park visitation by the independent motorist.

Gear and 1931 Model A Ford generously provided by John Lawyer of Plains, Montana.

Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.