Montana Railroad

Construction work on the Montana Railroad began in 1895 at Lombard, a station on the Northern Pacific Railway 53 miles east of Helena.

The Montana Railroad route proceeded eastward from Lombard up Sixteen Mile Canyon towards the mining districts of the Castle Mountains, in southeastern Meagher County.

[2] In the face of the declining mineral production in the Castle area, Harlow realized that his railroad needed a larger and more diversified traffic base.

He therefore announced plans to extend his railroad still farther, and in 1899 railway construction crews began working eastward down the Musselshell River valley.

[2] Nearly all of the Milwaukee Road's trackage in the area was abandoned in 1980 due to bankruptcy, and today only a short segment of the former Montana Railroad (near Moore) remains in service.