mileage
264 Cross the Milk River and enter MALTA. The AMTRAK station is located at 51 S. First Street, East. Elevation approximately 2250. Malta is the county seat of Phillips County, and was also named by the Great Northern Railroad
when a “spin of the globe” gave the officials different names of international locations for the various stations along the GN high
line. Malta was the center of the Montana cattle business from 1870 through 1900, and was also the spot where all the cowpokes
would come after time on the range, and would get rowdy at the town’s brothels and bars on Saturday nights. One of the locals
was an immigrant named Robert M. Trafton, who would collect dried out bleached buffalo bones in the area and set them along the railroad
so they could be picked up and shipped to Minneapolis to make fertilizer.
The
winter of 1906-07 was unusually harsh, and killed thousands of cattle, thus forcing many of the ranchers out of the area. After
a drought in the 1920’s, farm irrigation along the Milk River came into prominence.
The Malta area was also the locale for many of western artist Charles Russell’s famous paintings. Malta is the home of the Phillips
County Museum, which features exhibits depicting the area’s pioneer days, as well as dinosaurs.
Geologically, we are still traversing the wide valley of the Milk River. From here to the North Dakota border, there will be
fewer bedrock exposures, as this area was largely covered by glacial debris from the last of the Pleistocene Ice Ages. You may
occasionally see large variably-colored boulders along the tracks, which are known as glacial erratics. These boulders were
transported to their present positions by glacial ice.
269 We are now crossing one of the many irrigation canals
in this area. The canals were constructed to divert water from the Milk River for the irrigation of crops.
270.5 Strater
siding.
273 Enter the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, well known for its summer population of pelicans, who winter
in California. The Bowdoin Gas Field, in this area, produces gas from the Upper Cretaceous Colorado Group sedimentary
rocks, from the Bowdoin Dome. This field began production in 1913.
In
this area, you will see many light-colored areas which look like mud flats. These areas actually mark the locations of seeps
of saline water, where the water has evaporated and left behind deposits of alkali minerals. Notice the absence of any green
vegetation in these seep areas.
277 Bowdoin. We are still in the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge.
279.5 We are now leaving the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge.
281 Cross Beaver River, which is cut into the older Milk
River Valley alluvium a few feet. No bedrock is exposed along the river.
281.5 Wooldrige. This community is named
after a family who lived in the area.
283 We are still following the Beaver River on the north (left if eastbound). The Beaver is a tributary of the Milk River.
285 Ashfield, The buffs south of the railroad (right if eastbound)
are composed of Upper Cretaceous sandstones and shales overlain by glacial deposits.
290 The canal south of the railroad
(right if eastbound) is yet another agricultural irrigation canal constructed for irrigation of crops in the area.
291 Cross Beaver Creek.
291-292 Pass through Saco. Saco was named after Saco, Maine, also during the “spin the globe”
period when officials of the Great Northern Railroad were looking for names for their stations along the GN high line. Near
Saco are two large glacial erratics (see MP 264 above) which resemble “sleeping buffalo” when viewed from a distance. These
rocks have been covered with ancient Native American pictures and writings, and are accessible from U.S. 2. Gros Ventre and
Assiniboine Indian legends say that a young Indian chief was following a herd of buffalo for several days, came upon the rocks, and
thought that the spirits had turned the buffalo he was stalking into stone.
The late news commentator Chet Huntley attended school in Saco.
We are still
traveling through the Bowdoin Gas Field.
294 Cross Beaver Creek once again, and enter VALLEY County. This county
was named after the area’s topography, and was split from Dawson County in 1893. It is one of Montana’s largest counties, and
was formerly buffalo range and hunting grounds for the Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, Piegan, and Blood Indians. The county was known
as “the most lawless and crookedest county in the Union” during the early 1890’s.
295 Once again we cross Beaver
Creek.
296 The small community of Beaverton is just north of the railroad (left if eastbound). Like others
in the area, the town sprang up during the “homestead boom” in the early 1900’s, but it didn’t last very long.
297 Cross a few more branches of Beaver Creek. The bluffs on the south (right if eastbound) are composed of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary
rocks overlain by glacial deposits.
301.5 U.S. 2 is again approaching the railroad on the north (left if eastbound).
304 Hinsdale. Hinsdale was named after either Hinsdale, New Hampshire, or Hinsdale, Illinois. North of town, along Rock Creek,
there are good examples of badlands topography, but unfortunately these areas are not visible from the train. On either side
of the Milk River Valley in this area, numerous landslide scars can be seen.
307 The Milk River is again adjacent
to the railroad on the north. To the south can be seen bluffs composed of Claggett Shale and other Upper Cretaceous formations.
308.5 Badlands topography and landslide scars are visible south of the railroad (right if eastbound).
310 Vandalia Dam
is visible on the north side of the railroad (left if eastbound).
313 Vandalia. This town was originally a
trading post known as Campbell’s Houses or Hammett’s Houses. From 1868 to 1902, a large ranch house was built here out of cottonwood
logs, and it is said that the St. Mary’s Lodge in Glacier National Park was patterned after the ranch house that was built here in
Vandalia. The ranch house was torn down after the owner’s death. There was also a former brick plant in this area.
315-316 South of the railroad here (right if eastbound) is the Vandalia Gas Field, which produces oil and gas from the Upper Cretaceous Colorado
Group sedimentary rocks.
318 The small Tampico Landing Strip is visible north of the railroad (left if eastbound).
318.5 Tampico is visible south of the tracks (right if eastbound). It is a small agricultural town and railroad siding.
321 This area is full of small agricultural canals on either side of the railroad. We are still traveling down the Milk River Valley.
323.5 Cross Antelope Creek.
325.5 Paisley siding. The Milk River Valley is quite wide now.
328 Cross Milk River.
330 GLASGOW station, 424 First Avenue South. Elevation approximately 2090. This town was named after Glasgow, Scotland, during
the Great Northern’s “spin the globe” campaign to come up with names of their stations on the high line. Glasgow is an agricultural
and commercial trade center in this part of the State. It is the county seat of Valley County, and was founded in 1889. Originally it was a cattle shipping center. The first issue of Life magazine, in 1936, featured Glasgow and showed the new workers
coming into town to begin construction of the Fort Peck Dam, south of town.
In the 1950’s, the Glasgow Air Base was the home of the Strategic Air Command’s fleet of B-52 bombers during the Cold War. With
the Pentagon-ordered closing of the base in 1964, the area lost as much as 1/3 of its population.
Glasgow is a well-known fossil hunting locality, and the Fort Peck Museum contains an exhibit of dinosaur bones. Glasgow is
also the home of the Pioneer Museum, which features Native American and pioneer artifacts, plus some wildlife exhibits.
332-333 The Milk River again parallels the railroad on the south. Bluffs north of the railroad (left if eastbound) are still composed
of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks overlain by glacial deposits.
335 U.S. 2 again rejoins the railroad on the
north.
337 Whately siding.
340 The meandering Milk River is visible to the south of the railroad
(right if eastbound).
345 Nashua. Nashua is a Native American word meaning “meeting of two streams.” The two streams that meet near here are the Milk River, which we have been following, and the Mighty Missouri River, which you will
see soon. Charles Sargeant, of Fort Union, was one of the early settlers, and had believed that Nashua would be a good railroad
division point, so he established the town in 1886. As it turned out, however, Glasgow was chosen by the railroad to be the
division point instead.
Several miles south of Nashua is the mighty Fort Peck
Dam. The Fort Peck Dam was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” and is the second largest earthen dam in the
world. From 1933 until 1940, a friendly invasion of ultimately 10,000 civilian workers, earning between 50˘ and $1.20 per hour,
hacked, dug, poured, sweated , ands wrested a sea out of the High Plains desolation. As a result, 20 million acre-ft of water
are impounded behind the nearly 4-mile long dam, corralled to a maximum depth of 220 ft and with a serpentine shoreline longer than
California’s – 1600 miles! Surrounding the whole sprawling lake are countless recreation areas, campgrounds, and other diversions;
the reservoir is home to a huge array of wildlife, including elk, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and migrating waterfowl, all protected
within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
345.5 Cross porcupine Creek.
346.5 We are now entering the Fort
Peck Indian Reservation.
349 The bedrock exposed in the hills to the north (left if eastbound) are Upper Cretaceous
sedimentary formations overlain by thin glacial soils.
352 We are now leaving the valley of the Milk River, and will
soon be entering the valley of the Missouri River.
355.5 Kintyre siding.
361 Frazer. This town is a grain
shipping center, and was named after the foreman of a railroad grading crew. A little south of here, the Milk River finally
empties into the Missouri River.
362 Frazer Lake is visible on the south (right if eastbound).
365 We are now entering the flood plain of the Missouri River.
368.5 Oswego. This town was named after Oswego, New York, which
was where a group of early settlers to the area emigrated from. The largest ranch in the area was the N-N Ranch, owned by four
“Dutchmen from St. Louis,” the Niedringhaus Brothers. Beginning in 1888, the N-N Ranch processed quite a few cattle on their
way from Texas to the East. Then in 1972, a devastating prairie fire all but wiped Oswego out, and only 4 homes and the grain
elevator survived.
Your first glance of the Mighty Missouri River is on the
right here (eastbound).
370.5 Enter ROOSEVELT County, named after Theodore Roosevelt. The county was organized in 1919,
and much of the county is occupied by the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The county seat is Wolf Point.
378 Cross Wolf Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River, which is now visible south of the railroad (right if eastbound). We are
still within the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
380 WOLF POINT station, 320 Front Street. Elevation approximately
2000. Wolf Point is primarily an agricultural town; however, it is also the home of Honeyland, Inc., which is a honey company
which operates more than 4000 colonies of bees in the area, and produces half a million pounds of honey every year. The town
was named after a party of wolf trappers who captured several hundred wolves one cold winter day and piled them up at their camp,
which faced the Missouri River.
Each July, Wolf Point is the home of the Wild
Horse Stampede, which features rodeo performers by local Assiniboine and Sioux Indians. The Wild Horse Stampede has taken place
ever since before the town was incorporated in the early 20th century. One of the better known performers was Monte Montana,
the son of E.O. Mickel, who made the Wild Horse Stampede into a rodeo. Monte appeared in many western films, and later was featured
in the 1993 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Monte was raised in Wolf Point.
The Upper Cretaceous sandstones and shales around Wolf Point have yielded many dinosaur bones, primarily from the Uppermost Cretaceous
Hell Creek Formation.
Wolf Point marks the approximate edge of the Williston
Basin, which is a structural basin developed in Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, and which is an avid producer of
oil and gas.
382 Cross Little Wolf Creek. Wolf Point Airport is visible on the right slightly ahead of the
train (eastbound).
386 Pass through Macon.
390 The Missouri River us still visible on the right
(eastbound). We are passing several agricultural canals which drain into the Missouri.
During the spring of 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled up the Missouri River through this area in search of a water route
to the Pacific.
394.5 The small settlement of Chelsea is visible on the right (eastbound). The body of water past the
settlement is Chelsea Slough, a small flood plain bayou of the Missouri River.
400.5 Cross Poplar River. Upper Cretaceous
sedimentary formations are exposed in the banks of the river and along the railroad. The Poplar River flows into the Missouri
River approximately one mile south of the railroad.
401-402 Pass through Poplar. In 1879, the Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Headquarters were moved to Poplar, and the town was known as Poplar Creek Agency. The town was named after the abundant poplar
trees which grow in the area. Poplar is the home of the Assiniboine/Sioux Tribal Museum, which contains artifacts from Custer’s
defeat at nearby Little Big Horn.
North of town is the Poplar Oil Field, which
was discovered in 1927 and produces from the Mississippian-aged Madison Limestone.
402.5 The Missouri River is now immediately
adjacent to the Railroad on the south (right if eastbound).
407.5 Sprole siding. This former community was named after
Major Sprole, a former Indian agent who was in charge of the Fort Peck Reservation.
413 Sedimentary rock exposures
from Upper Cretaceous strata should be visible on the north (left if eastbound) here, covered by glacial deposits.
415 Pass through Brockton, on the bank of the Missouri River, visible on the right (eastbound). Bluffs behind town are uppermost
Cretaceous strata. Brockton has been described as a “windswept village on the prairie,” but near here, north of town, a famous
battle between Crow and Sioux Indians took place over a cattle rustling by the Crows.
418 This is the approximate
location of the boundary between the uppermost Cretaceous strata and the Paleocene-aged Fort Union Formation. The Fort Union
Formation consists of yellowish –brown sandstones and shales, and looks very much like the Upper Cretaceous strata we have caught
occasional glimpses of over the last several miles. While the Upper Cretaceous strata are known for containing fossilized dinosaur
bones, the Fort Union Formation is best known as containing some fairly high-quality coal seams.
420 Calais siding. We are still traversing the edge of the Missouri River flood plain, with the river visible to the south (right if eastbo9und). Bluffs north of the railroad are composed of Paleocene-aged (earliest Tertiary) Fort Union Formation overlain by glacial deposits.
425 Fort Kipp. Fort Kipp was built in 1860 and named after Captain James Kipp, who commanded the fort for many years and married
into an Indian family. The old fort buildings are gone, but in the 1960’s, a small subdivision was built in the area. Residents of the subdivision are primarily Assiniboine and Sioux Indians, and their children attend school in Brockton (see MP 415
above).
427-428 Bluffs on the north (left if eastbound) are composed of Paleocene Fort Union Formation.
429 Blair siding, named after Sidney D. Blair, a local resident.
430 Cross Big Muddy Creek and leave the Fort Peck Indian
Reservation.
431-432 Badlands topography is visible on the north (left if eastbound), and consists of bluffs composed of
Fort Union Formation, overlain by glacial deposits.
434.5 Pass through Culbertson. Culbertson was first visited by white
men in May 1805 with the arrival of Lewis and Clark, who were amazed by the abundance of wild game in the area grasslands. The
town was named after Major Alexander Culbertson, an agent from the Fort Union fur trading post (see MP 464 below), who won the respect
of the local Blackfeet Indians. Culbertson is the oldest town in this part of Montana, and is still a ranching and agricultural
center. Near here is the Diamond Ranch, which in 1906, had up to 15,000 head of cattle. Legend has it that, when the Diamond
Ranch cowboys would bring their cattle into Culbertson, they would celebrate by riding their horses into the many bars in town and
shooting holes in their ceilings!
438 Fort Union Formation is visible in the hills south of the railroad (right if
eastbound).
440 The Missouri River is now several miles south of the railroad, and out of view.
442 Lanark siding.
446 Look for oil wells on either side of the railroad.
447.5 The railroad branch line on the
north here (left if eastbound) formerly connected Bainville with the communities of Plentywood and Scobey. The community of
Plentywood is known for its ranches containing such exotic animals as reindeer, miniature horses, and ostriches.
449 Bainville. This town was named after its first postmaster, Charles Bain. The town was formerly known as Kenneth. During prohibition, several “pool halls” in Bainville were actually saloons, which were supplied by nearby stills which produced substances
which “could have been used as rocket fuel” in later years. The Great Depression of the 1930’s marked the beginning of the downfall
of Bainville, and a tornado in the early 1930’s destroyed the local armory and grain elevator.
450 Cross Shotgun
Creek. This valley is another pre-glacial course of the Missouri River.
454-455 We are now following the meandering
Little Muddy Creek on the right (eastbound).
456 Lakeside siding. The town was named after the wide spot in
the Missouri River, to the south, which formed as the river makes a very sharp bend and almost doubles back on itself. The river
is again visible to the southwest (right if eastbound).
458 Again the Missouri River is visible south of the railroad
(right if eastbound). The bluffs on the left are composed of Paleocene-aged Fort Union Formation.
459-460 The Fort
Union Formation bedrock is exposed in railroad cuts adjacent to the tracks here.
461.5 Snowden siding. More bedrock exposures
of the Fort Union Formation are visible here.
463-464 Along the Missouri River here are more bluffs composed of the Paleocene-aged
Fort Union Formation.
464 Enter WILLIAMS County, NORTH DAKOTA. SET YOUR WATCH 1 HOUR AHEAD IF EASTBOUND, AND
1 HOUR BACK IF WESTBOUND! This county was named after Erastus Appoleman Williams, a legislator who was in office when the state
of North Dakota was still a territory. Williams played a large part in naming many of the counties of North Dakota.
Immediately east of the state line is the Fort Union Trading Post National Historical Site. Fort Union, the fur trading post,
was founded in 1828, and was located 1776 river miles from the nearest supply point, St. Louis. It was established by the American
Fur Company, which was founded by John Jacobs Astor. The first manager of Fort Union was Kenneth McKenzie. From this trading
post, furs were traded with the Assiniboine, Blackfeet, and Crow Indians. In 1837, a smallpox epidemic came to Fort Union via
a steamboat on the Missouri river, and many of the Assiniboine and Blackfeet perished with it. In 1867, after continuing trouble
with the Sioux Indians, the site became an army garrison.
Fort Union is now
a tourist attraction. The Bourgeois House, Trade House, and other buildings still remain and are open today. The Trade
House contains reproductions of furs, which are for sale!
466.5 Buford. By 1866, Fort Union had been dismantled, and a
new fort was built a few miles east, overlooking the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri River. Fort Buford was one
of a number of military posts established to protect overland and river routes used by immigrants settling the West. While it
served an essential role as the sentinel of the northern plains for 29 years, it is probably best remembered as the place where the
famous Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, surrendered in 1881. The fort is located approximately one mile south of the railroad.
Approximately one mile south of the railroad is the confluence of the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. The Lewis &
Clark Expedition camped here on April 25 and 26, 1805. Of the Yellowstone River, which rises in teh Rockies just south of Yellowstone
National Park, Captain Clark wrote “…this plain is narrow at its commencement and widens as the Missouri bends north, and is bordered
by an extencive wood land for many miles up the Yellow Stone River, this low plain is not subject to over flow…. and affords a butifull
commanding situation for a fort near the commencement of the Prairie.”
Nar Fort
Buford, on the north bank of the Missouri, is they Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence and Interpretive Center.
468 The
bluffs on the north are composed of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation; however, in North Dakota, the Fort Union is mapped as at least
2 distinct members – the lower member is known as the Bullion Creek Formation, and is yellowish in color, while the upper younger
unit is known as the Sentinel Butte Formation. The yellow Bullion Creek Formation is what gave the Yellowstone River its name.
471 Pass through Marley.
475 Pas through Trenton. The body of water on the south (right if eastbound) is Lake Trenton,
an oxbow lake within the Missouri River flood plain. The course of the Missouri River has changed somewhat in the 200 years
since the Lewis & Clark Expedition. There were still oxbow lakes in the flood plain during that time; however, their locations
have changed dramatically since then.
Downstream from Trenton along the Missouri
River, the river widens significantly and is known as Lake Sakakawea (an alternate spelling for Lewis & Clark’s Shoshone Indian
guide Sacajawea).
478 Just north of here is the Johnsrud Fossil Leaf Site, where abundant fossilized leaves have
been found within the Sentinel Butte Member of the Fort Union Formation. Some of the fossils are now exhibited at the University
of North Dakota in Grand Forks, or at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck.
478-479 Part of Lake Sakakawea is visible
to the south of the railroad (right if eastbound). The Paleocene-aged Bullion Creek Member of the Fort Union Formation is again
exposed in the bluffs north of the railroad.
481-482 the main channel of the Missouri River is again visible to the south
(right if eastbound).
485 U.S. 2, now a divided highway, approaches the railroad again on the north (left if eastbound).
487 WILLISTON station, 1 South Main Street. Elevation approximately 1855. Williston was named for Daniel Willis James, a Board
member of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, by his friend, railroad owner, James J. Hill. Williston has been a railroad,
agricultural, and livestock center since its earliest days, and presently is also a petroleum center due to its location within the
Williston Basin (see MP 380 above). Williston is known as the ”Champion City,” for no apparent reason, and is the home of the
Rough Riders Art Show each May. Williston was also the home of basketball coach Phil Jackson.
From here through the end of this log, there will be very few additional bedrock exposures, except for the area between here and Stanley,
the next station. Most of the area through which we are yet to travel is covered by Pleistocene-aged glacial till deposits,
lake beds, or dune sand.