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PAGE 10 ALL ABOUt MONtANA MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • APRIL / MAY 2021
Relive Part of Montana’s

History at Monarch Depot

BY sUZANNE WArING

Hear the whistle in the distance. Feel the
rumbling on the tracks. Smell the hot oil and
grease, and step away from the immense
engine as it charges past the depot platform.
Trains roared into the station at
Monarch, Mont., up to three times a day.
As the social center for the area, folks were
either there traveling, or out of curiosity.
The mining district of the Little Belts
Mountains in central Montana depended
on the railroad for supplies and trans-
portation as time rolled through the first
decades of the twentieth century.
To bring in equipment and ship out
lead, gold, and silver ore mined in the
mountains around Monarch, a branch
line of the Montana Central Railroad,
owned by the Great Northern Railroad
Company, extended 56 miles from Sand Photo taken after the Monarch Depot’s construction, near 1901. Photo courtesy of Great Falls History Museum.
Coulee to Monarch.
The first train arrived May 16, 1890. Having rail service, a definite conve- The Monarch Depot was rebuilt after a
The line extended 13 miles to Neihart by nience for area residents, significantly fire on September 29, 1900. The replace-
November 15, 1891, where there was a man- reduced travel times. Stagecoach service ment, completed February 11, 1901, was
ual turntable at the end of the line. A spur made the 45 miles to Great Falls in 12 hours, considered a combination depot.
line connected Monarch to the mines at with a two-hour stop to rest the horses This Craftsman style, 24-by-40-foot
Hughesville and the Barker Mining district midway. By train, time was reduced to five building, constructed from Great Northern
soon after the Monarch line was finished. hours with as many as eight stops. Railroad plans, contains four areas: the

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