Chapter two of my rediscovery of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific railroad route took me across Montana from the Idaho border to Billings. The route stays close to I-90 in much of western Montana, though it is difficult to access in the higher mountains. I had a bona fide adventure biking the Hiawatha Trail near Lookout Pass at the Idaho border. The 15-mile ride included stunning mountain scenery, seven breathtaking trestle bridges and nine tunnels, including one that was cold, wet, muddy and a mile and a half long. (continued below)
On Saturday, we attended the annual Railroad Days in Alberton, pop. 555. The original train station now houses the town library, but the librarian wasn’t aware that she worked in the station!
Missoula and Butte still have magnificent brick Milwaukee Road train stations with impressive towers. In Deer Lodge, I found one of the famous Little Joe engines. GE built 20 of these electric locomotives for Joseph Stalin’s USSR after WWII, but worsening relations meant they went to the Milwaukee Road at a bargain price instead. Three Rivers has an excellent new railroad museum, housed in the Northern Pacific station which was moved from Trident, a few miles north. A good collection of CMSP&P memorabilia was found, including the schedule for the Milwaukee to Chicago train I rode as a youngster.
At Manhattan the rail route follows a path to the north of the main Interstate through a very sparsely populated part of the state. My favorite stretch was Manhattan to Ringling, where the gravel road turns to deeply rutted dirt and the only road sign said “Impassible During Rain or Snow”. The mostly ghost town of Maudlow was where the mailman told me, “Nope, I’ve never driven the road to Ringling, but I’ve been told you can get through.” I made it as far east as Livina, where I left the Milwaukee Road route and followed the BNSF south to my hotel near Billings. The next leg of my quest will take me east to North and South Dakota.