Harlowton

The Milwaukee Road 657 mile electrified railroad ended at 11:40 PM June 15, 1974 when Engineer Art Morang stopped the E57B & E34C on the Harlowton roundhouse track. They were the last operating locomotive of the original 84 locomotives built by General Electric in 1915.

The electric locomotive roster had totaled 116 locomotives of 5 different types operating from Harlowton, MT 44o miles to Avery, Idaho and 216 miles from Othello, Wash. to Tacoma, Wash. over 5 mountain ranges.

The E57B is 57' 8 3/4" long and 16' 8" high (paragraph down) 10' 0" wide and weighs 144 tons. Rated at 1500 h.p. it could develop 2395 h.p. starting effort, a 62% overload. Operating in 1 to 4 unit consists, they were very trouble free locomotives. Their 3000 volt D.C. trolley restricted them to a small portion of the 11,248 mile railroad and they were replaced by the more versatile diesel electric locomotives.

W.H. Wilkerson, Secy., E57B Committee

Erected by E57B Committee and Montana Department of Transportation.

The town of Harlowton is located in the Fort Union Geological Formation, which was created about 65 million years ago, shortly after the dinosaur extinction. This once shallow inland sea was formed from rivers originating in the southwestern mountain slopes of Montana. These rivers transferred and deposited sediment collected fro the swampy, subtropical eastern coastal plains into the shallow sea. As the rivers shifted over time, swamp vegetation and peat were covered with thick deposits of sand, silt, and clay, which would later form coal. These deposits cemented and compacted into sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone.- soft materials that easily erode - leaving few outcrops of more weather-resistant rocks.

The area surrounding Harlowton is also famous for its Paleocene fossils. In 1902, Princeton University paleontologist Earl Douglass and Albert Silberling, a local homesteader and self-taught paleontologist, discovered the fossil remains of primitive mammals in a quarry southwest of Harlowton. Paleontologists excavated that quarry and three others over the next four decades and these sites yielded the remains of at least 23 species, including a squirrel-like animal called Ptilodus, the most successful of all mammals.

Ptilodus first appeared during the middle Jurassic Age about 160 million years ago and became extinct about 35 million years ago. It co-existed with massive sauropods, such as the Apatosaurus and Diplodous, as well as the meat-eating Allosaurus. During the Paleozoic time, Montana's climate was warm, humid, and possibly densely forested. With its dexterous feet, legs, and tail, Ptilodus was a good climber with a well-developed sense of smell. Teeth recovered in the quarries indicate that it was herbivorous. Other fossils found by Douglass and Silberling include a privative species of ungulate called Phenacodus, and a primative-like animal called Plesiadapis, all of which co-existed with Ptilodus and were preyed upon by Creodonts, the dominant carnivorous animal of the time. Albert Silberling's excavation of thousands of fossils and his discoveries from quarries in the Harlowton area have greatly contributed to scientists' knowledge about life in the Paleozoic Era.

Geo-Facts:

The Crazy Mountains are an intrusion of igneous rocks that pushed their way up through older sedimentary rocks about fifty million years ago. The rugged southern peaks of the range were sculpted by glaciers.

Earl Douglass and Albert Silberling collected 178 specimens from one quarry that included 23 species of mammals that were no larger than a modern rat.

Paleocene means "early dawn of the recent" in Greek. The Paleocene Epoch immediately followed the massive extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Era.

Geo-Activity:

Think about the types of mammals, landscape and climate described in the marker that once existed in the area and compare them to places and animals you see today. Look at the picture of Ptilodus, is there a similar animal where you live.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Called Awaxaawippiia by the Apsaalooka (Crow) Indians, the Crazy Mountains, which you can see to the southwest, are an igneous formation forged about 50 million years ago. For the Apsaalooka, they are the most sacred and revered mountains on the northern Great Plains. Awaxaawippiia was a place of refuge and protection. The Apsaalooka's enemies would not follow them into the mountains. Because of their great spiritual power, Awaxaawippiia continues to be an important vision quest site for the tribe. Famed Chief Plenty Coups had a vision there in 1857 in which, he said, the end of the plains Indian way-of-life was shown to him.

There are several stories about how the mountains got their current name. The most popular story goes that a woman traveling across the plains with a wagon train went insane. She escaped from the party and was found near these mountains. So they were called the Crazy Woman Mountains, a name which was eventually shortened.

This district was great cow country in the days of the open range, and there are still a number of large cattle ranches in this vicinity, though now under fence. The town of Two Dot gets its name from an early day brand.

Erected by Montand Department of Transportation.