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Montana
Station-ary Tourism
The very word
Montana
stirs up images
of craggy mountain peaks and wide
golden plains beneath a vast blue sky.
The state has long been a tourist hub for
those who enjoy the outdoors and want
a taste of the untamed West. A forth-
coming book will add a new dimension
to this well-loved destination: Old West
railway depots.
Although a resident of the state for
more than 30 years, Mark Hufstetler
became a Montana tourist himself
while working on his book,
Monuments
to Travel: Montana’s Historic Railway
Stations
.
His research was a road trip
experience. “I’ve done thousands of
miles of driving here. It’s been fun
because I’ve been able to explore parts of
the state that I wouldn’t have otherwise
visited.”
Montana’s statehood came late—not
until 1889. Railroads were booming in
Montana by then and were central to
its development and culture. Tangible
glimpses of this past are scattered
across the state in the form of railroad
depots, most more than 100 years old.
Hufstetler’s research turned up more
than 175 still standing.
“
When this book comes out, I think
it will create a huge buzz,” says Ken
Egan, executive director of Humanities
Montana, a nonprofit organization
that supported Hufstetler’s research.
“
We’re nostalgic about our home, and
Montana’s depots are so distinct. They
rise up out of the prairie and are impor-
tant icons.”
The book, to be published by the
Montana Historical Society Press (
mhs.
mt.gov/pub
)
in late 2014, will include
photographs of the depots past and pres-
ent, statewide maps of depot locations
and an explanation of their historical
importance.
“
These were the days before automo-
biles,” says Hufstetler. “Depots were the
places that people entered and left town,
shipped and received parcels, and sent
and received messages because depots
were also telegraph stations. They were
very important buildings in the daily
lives of people.”
Hufstetler was impressed by the
quality and variety of the buildings. “So
many of the depots are just exceptional
pieces of architecture,” he says. Rail-
trail fans can see one of his favorites,
the Milwaukee Road Depot (pictured
above), with its sunset-hued bricks and
distinctive observation towers, standing
tall over the Kim Williams Nature Trail
in Missoula. “They all have their own
story,” says Hufstetler, and in his book,
readers will have the chance to hear
them.
Missoula’s Milwaukee
Road Depot and Kim
Williams Nature Trail
Kristi Hager
Pennsylvania
Steam Into History
The steam engine that lumbers down the
old Northern Central Railway route is
no ordinary train, and it offers no ordi-
nary ride. The locomotive—with bright
red wheels flashing and brass accents
shining—is a Civil War-era replica built
from scratch. And tourists experience
history come alive as they ride the train
through Pennsylvania’s lush York County
countryside.
“
We were looking for a locomotive
typical for the 1860s, but we couldn’t
find any,” says G. Robert Gotwols, chief
operating officer for Steam Into History,
a new tourist train venture in New
Freedom, Pa. “Most were scrapped or
left to rot, so we went looking for some-
one who could build a new one.”
They found their man in David
Kloke, who—as a hobby—once built the
88,000-
pound steam engine
Leviathan
63
,
based on the original patterns of the
historic
Jupiter
train that participated in
the Golden Spike Ceremony marking the
completion of the first Transcontinental
Railroad in 1869.
Kloke completed
York 17
this past
summer, and the Steam Into History
train was on track for a June 2013 open-
ing. Each round-trip journey between