The History of Central Montana Railroads

By editor

Lewistown, Fergus County, Montana

If you find yourself in Lewistown today, you might notice a curious thing: the absence of a train whistle slicing through the Montana air. This silence is oddly conspicuous for a town that was once a hub of iron horse activity, a place where the railroads shaped the economic fate and social fabric of central Montana. The story of Lewistown’s railroads is not just about steel and steam; it’s a tale of ambition, hype, and the slow grind of progress, all set against the backdrop of the unforgiving Northern Plains.

The first railroad to reach Lewistown was a modest affair, an extension from Lombard, Montana, built by the Montana Railroad Company. Locally, the line earned the nickname "The Jawbone." The reason for this curious moniker lies with Richard Harlow, the railroad’s chief promoter and builder, a man whose skill with words was said to be as relentless as the locomotive’s chug. Folks claimed he could talk a dry creek into a flood. One newspaper of the time remarked, "Mr. Harlow’s jaw never rests; it’s the engine that never stops running, and often louder." The first train sputtered into Lewistown in October of 1903, heralding an era that would transform the town from a dusty collection of buildings to a nexus of commerce and travel.

Before the railroad, freight was hauled over rough trails by wagons that creaked and groaned under Montana’s merciless weather, while people arrived on foot, horseback, or the occasional stagecoach that had seen better days. Travel was a gamble, and freight prices reflected the gamble’s cost. The arrival of The Jawbone changed all that, providing a more reliable and efficient link to markets beyond Montana’s borders. But the Montana Railroad was a scrappy little operation, and its ambitions soon attracted the attention of larger fish.

By 1910, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad -- most commonly called "the Milwaukee Road" -- had purchased the Montana Railroad. The Milwaukee was not content with mere ownership; it set about expanding its reach aggressively. Between 1910 and 1917, the Milwaukee built rail lines from Lewistown north to Winifred and Roy, east to Winnett, and 137 miles northwest to Great Falls. This expansion was a gamble on the region’s agricultural and mineral potential, betting on the flow of grain, livestock, and ore to justify the iron web that they spun across the plains.

Meanwhile, the Great Northern Railway, another titan of the Northern Rockies, was not idle. On November 20, 1912, it completed a branch line from Moccasin to Lewistown, cementing the town’s role as a critical junction. Both the Great Northern and the Milwaukee built sizable terminals in Lewistown, each asserting their dominance. The Milwaukee’s Lewistown depot, constructed in 1913, served as the passenger depot and office until 1955. This depot was the hub of the Northern Montana Division, linking Chicago and Seattle through a series of connections that made Lewistown a gateway between east and west.

It’s worth noting that this railroad boom coincided with a period of intense speculation in Montana. Investors dreamed of endless wheat fields and untapped mineral riches. Land promoters and bankers waxed poetic about the coming prosperity. But as the Milwaukee Road’s president, O. W. Wight, once dryly observed, "Railroads do not create wealth; they only transport it. It is the land, the people, and their toil that make the difference." In other words, the rails were only part of the equation.

Despite the grand designs, the railroads faced harsh realities. The weather was brutal, crossing frozen rivers and winds that could blow a man off his feet. Maintenance costs were high, and freight traffic often fluctuated with the fickle demands of agriculture and mining. By the 1960s, many branch lines saw declining freight traffic as trucks and highways began to nibble away at the railroads’ dominance.

In 1970, a significant shuffle took place when the Great Northern Railway merged with the Northern Pacific, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway to form the Burlington Northern. This merger was part of a national trend toward consolidation amidst declining railroad profitability. For Lewistown, it meant the end of 99 and a half years of continuous railroad service. The final passenger trains had long since stopped running, and freight service dwindled to a whisper before ceasing altogether. No more trains meant no more whistles, and the town lost a vital artery.

Yet, railroading was not quite done with central Montana. In 1984, the Central Montana Railway was organized to haul grain on state-owned tracks between Geraldine and Spring Creek Junction. This short line was a lifeline for local farmers who still needed to get their harvests to market. It was a humble operation compared to the grand ambitions of the early 20th century but vital nonetheless.

The Milwaukee Road’s glorious Great Falls line also found a second life as the Charlie Russell Chew Choo, an excursion dinner train that still operates over a portion of the former route. This train offers a glimpse into the days when rail travel was both practical and romantic -- a chance to savor history over good food and company.

The railroad corridor itself, after the cessation of service in 2003, became the subject of a negotiation between the BNSF Railway Company and the City of Lewistown. They agreed on a rail-banking and bargain sale contract on December 11, 2006, allowing the city to convert the corridor into a trail for non-motorized recreational use while preserving the right to reclaim the corridor if rail service ever resumed. By the end of 2006, 14.47 miles of track had been removed, leaving behind a mere 150 feet of rail as a tangible reminder of the days when trains ran through Fergus County.

In the final analysis, the story of Central Montana’s railroads is a story of change -- of dreams born on the prairie, of the rise and fall of enterprises large and small, and of a community’s adaptation to shifting economic realities. As the historian Richard Harlow once quipped in a letter to a local newspaper, "The iron horse may tire, but the spirit that laid the rail will forever mark these lands." Whether that spirit will ever rekindle the whistles on the wind remains to be seen, but for now, the rails have yielded to trails, and the locomotives to history.

See also

• The History of Central Montana Railroads at Lewistown, Fergus County
• An Important Era in Railroad History at Twin Bridges, Madison County
• The Iron Horse Comes to Billings at Billings, Yellowstone County