186 M0N7ANA 19U 



from its pathway in the heart of ]\Tontana and penetrated the forests be- 

 yond the continental divide. 



Since that day the Chicas^o, Alihvaukee & St. Paul has served not merely 

 as a connecting link between the cities of the Great Lakes and those by 

 the Western Sea, but it has served as a creative energy in the vast prin- 

 cipality between the Falls of St. Anthony and Puget Sound. 

 Bound in Comlmunities have been created almost in a single day and 

 Ribbons of people have pushed back from the railroad as far as they 

 Civilization, could go and engage in agriculture at a profit. The road has 

 created a ribbon of civilization at least fifty miles wide across 

 the heart of IMontana. 



In igo8 immigration into Montana was at the extreme lov/ ebb. Filings 

 on public land were few and new acreage brought under cultivation small. 

 The next year the Milwaukee & Puget Sound was completed. There werfc 

 4,434 filings for homestead lands, totaling 1,163.472 acres of land. In 1910 

 this increased to 6,311 filings, and 2,378,672 acres of land. During the four 

 years from 1909 to 191 3, 20,349 families had filed on 5,544,759 acres of 

 Montana land. 



This gives but a faint idea of what the building of a railroad means 

 to the state of Montana. 



The activities of a railroad already constructed are quite as importawi 

 as the building of a new line. The three roads across Montana are all 

 active in a continuous campaign to develop the state and increase its pro- 

 ductio'U, which means, of course, increased tonnage and revenues for the 

 railroads, with a proportionate decrease in the railroad rates to the primary 

 markets. 



The story of the development along the lines of the Great Northern and 

 Northern Pacific railroads is quite as remarkable as that ot the growth 

 which followed the building of the Milwaukee & Puget Sound, though cov- 

 ering a longer period of time and perhaps for this reason not usually con- 

 sidered as graphic an illustration of development following the construction 

 of railroads. 



When James J. Hill walked and rode for two thousand miles from the 

 Falls of St. Anthony to Puget Sound and proposed a railroad across the ter- 

 ritory stretching for two thousand miles along the Canadian border, the 

 plan was called "Hill's folly." 



For a number of years it seem.ed the criticisms of the eastern railroad 

 builders were justified. For a good many years the Great Northern 

 operated across Montana, securing little revenue from the handling of 

 livestock and wool. The movement of ores v.^as by far the most important 

 part of its business. Later on considerable lumbering was developed in 

 the Flathead country. 



Suddenly the Plill interests began their development propaganda on the 

 largest scale ever attempted in the United States. The object, of course, 



-Montana's schools have a princely endoivment. 



