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Electrically Driven "Olympian" Crossing Continental Divide. 



industrial enterprises and is rapidly being utilized for the propelling of freight and 

 passenger trains across the mountain divisions. There are few places in the world 

 in which nature lavished so generous a hand in the distribution of natural resources 

 as in Montana. And this is particularly true with respect to the bounteous water 

 power within the confines of this state. Two of the greatest rivers of the continent, 

 the Missouri and the Columbia, have their headwaters in the mountains of Montana 

 at elevations ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 feet, and traversing Montana for great dis- 

 tances leave its borders at elevations but slightly in excess of 2,000 feet above sea 

 level. So great is the waterfall of Montana's streams that conservative electrical 

 authorities have estimated that not less than 1,000,000 horse power can be developed 

 within this state. Already one company, the Montana Power Company, has developed 

 more than 100,000 horse power, and additional development is being prosecuted as 

 rapidly as markets are found. The electrification of over 400 miles of the main line 

 of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul is being rapidly completed, and it is expected 

 that the other transcontinental roads will shortly follow the lead of this one. Elec- 

 trical power is used at all of the principal mines of this state, and the invisible fluid 

 has become an important essential in the industrial and domestic life of the common- 

 wealth. 



Supplementing its 60,000,000 acres of rich valley and bench agricultural and 

 grazing lands, Montana has approximately 30,000,000 acres of mountain lands for the 

 most part timber, and the lumbering industry of this state contributes in no small 

 degree to its prosperity. The total estimated stand of commercial timber in the 

 State of Montana is approximately 65,000,000 M. feet, of which 33 per cent is in 

 private ownership, 6 per cent in state ownership, 3 per cent in national parks and 

 reserved public land, and 58 per cent controlled by the national forests, which cover 

 an area of 17,977,580 acres. The commercial value of the forests in all ownership 



