Montana authors Bill & Jan Taylor have made a career
out of their love for Montana history with four books to date on former
Northern Pacific and Great Northern segments. Here they tackle the rather short
Montana Central that connected Great Falls with Helena and Butte. By 1883,
James J. Hill who was to build the Great Northern, had build a railroad and
industrial empire centered on St. Paul, MN. The next year, Hill traveled to
Great Falls, MT, Paris Gibson’s namesake city by the banks of the Missouri
River. For here, there was money to be made by travel to the area for its
beauty as well as the extensive copper, silver, and coal deposits around nearby
Butte. Hill was looking for investment opportunities and bought holdings in
silver mines, thus giving him a direction to seek when expanding his Stg. Paul,
Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, the forerunner of the GN. Over 800 miles
needed to be closed to tap into this region as a step to the west coast. But
Hill set about to do just that aided by Marcus Daly, Butte’s future copper
baron and Charles Broadwarter, Helena banking magnate. The Montana Central was
just a small link but when it became apparent that Hill was coming from St.
Paul to link up with his “Manitoba Railway,” he set off the Northern Pacific
that envisioned this as their territory. That set off a war between two
dominant forces. The Taylors’ book records the history of the area,
construction of the MC, the NP’s response, and all of the key players while
bringing the MC itself into 2000 and beyond. This is a 170-page oblong
softcover. Gloss paper. New shrinkwrapped copy.
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