On November 19, 1887, the Montana Central Railway completed its line between Great Falls and Helena. James J. Hill’s north–south road finally tied Paris Gibson’s young industrial city to the capital and, soon after, to Butte’s mines.

The railroad undercut the high freight rates of the older Northern Pacific–Union Pacific pool and poured Canadian coal and Montana metals into a single system. Great Falls gained a reason to grow; Helena gained a rival route to the world.

Hill’s Montana Central became a key piece of what grew into the Great Northern. The November completion was the day central Montana’s map permanently bent toward the Hi-Line.