The town was located on the east bank of the Missouri River, just north of the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek.

Lombard was established in 1895 as the western terminus of the Montana Railroad, and the location of its interchange with the Northern Pacific Railway.

This lessened Lombard's importance as a railroad operational base, but the town survived as an interchange point between the Milwaukee and the Northern Pacific.

[citation needed] The population of Lombard declined throughout the first half of the twentieth century, corresponding with its lessening importance as a railroad town.

Lombard was deserted by the time the Milwaukee Road line through the area was abandoned in 1980, and it remains a ghost town today.