Montana Yesterday

admin | August 29, 2010

Disaster struck on the Great Northern Railway line on the southern edge of what would become Glacier National Park. The air brakes leaked on an eastbound freight train near Essex, and 28 cars detached from the engine. They rolled backward through the night — 17 miles down a steep grade, reaching an estimated 75-100 mph, [...]

Category: 1900, Disasters in Montana, Glacier National Park, Railroads | No Comments »
Tags: 1901, Belton, Essex, Glacier National Park, Great Northern, Jennings, Libby, Nyack, trainwreck

admin | May 6, 2010

There may have been a week of more impact in Montana history than the one that began on Sunday, May 8, 1910. I’m not aware of it. President Taft signed Glacier National Park into being on May 12, and what stories that act has wrought. In Missoula, the electric streetcars, powered by the new hydroelectric [...]

Category: 1910s, Aviation, Butte, Firefighting, Mining, Missoula history, Montana local history, National Forest, Railroads, University of Montana, Western Montana history, history milestones | No Comments »
Tags: 1910, 1910 fires, Amalgamated, Anaconda Company, Anaconda Standard, Glacier National Park, Great Northern, Halley's Comet, Milltown Dam, Missoula County courthouse, Missoula electric streetcar, Missoula Herald, Northern Pacific, U.S. Forest Service, William A. Clark

admin | January 27, 2010

Why, for instance, is the Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot called that? Here’s the answer, thanks to a new Internet offering, mtplacenames.org, from the Montana Historical Society and the Montana State Library. “Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot River The name Burnt Fork dates from as early as the 1850s, when Major John Owen filed the [...]

Category: Gold mining, Mining, Montana local history, Railroads, Ranching, Western Montana history | 4 Comments »
Tags: Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Absarokee, Alzada, Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot, Great Northern, Montana Historical Society, Montana State Library. Zurich