Transportation Tourism

29 Locations | Curated by Historic Montana

The impact of transportation on Montana tourism cannot be understated. Boarding houses, hotels, liveries, and way stations supported nineteenth century travelers in Montana, while remaining an integral part of a town’s commercial district. In fact, the construction of railroads motivated some towns in Montana to relocate closer to the lines in order to maintain an economy supported by the railroads. These transportation hubs supported railroad workers and passengers of all types with both sparse rooms and finely appointed hotels and restaurants. By the late 1800s, coaches and wagons also shuttled hardy travelers from hubs to sites of beauty and recreation.


In the early twentieth century, western boosters began promoting the scenic beauty of America to members of the leisure class. The scenery of the American West, they claimed, rivaled in beauty and grandeur the magnificence of European cities. Advocates asserted tourism in the United States instilled both patriotic wonder and national pride. The “See America First” campaign of the early 20th century catalyzed interest in western travel and promoters boosted locomotive travel as a safe, efficient, and luxurious mode of travel.


Railroad publicity departments responded to this trend by turning their attention from populating the West to expanding the myth of the West to attract the interest and money of Eastern tourists. Railroad companies responded to the interest in Western scenery by constructing scenic short lines and spur tracks to national parks and other sites of scenic wonder. In Gardiner, the grand Roosevelt arch introduced visitors to Yellowstone by drawing on the inspiring architectural traditions of old Europe and Glacier park promoters drew parallels with alpine tourism. By the time the good road movement gained traction, America’s love affair with scenic beauty tourist travel was firmly cemented.


These modes of travel precipitated the construction of accommodations and more attractions. In the case of the town of West Yellowstone, the presence of the Union Pacific’s station, dining lodge, dormitories, and other facilities was the direct result of Yellowstone’s popularity with tourists. Hotels such as the New Park Hotel in Great Falls were built near rail stations and roads in order to serve passengers as well as motorists. Roadside attractions such as the John Hepburn Place lured travelers off the road with promises of western curiosities and businesses learned to accommodate the expectations of auto travelers.


After the construction of the federal highway system, railroad passenger service fell as more travelers opted for road travel, and business owners adapted buildings and business practice to support the auto touring public. Hotels, restaurants, motolodges, drive ins, campgrounds, and rest areas continue to provide for the millions of visitors who marvel at the natural resources of the Treasure State.

This grandiose, three-story Italianate style hotel welcomed weary river travelers to the Gateway of the Northwest, offering guests a luxurious refuge before setting out for less civilized destinations. Its opening in 1882 came at the end of the steamboat era, when Fort Benton was still an…
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Arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad caused Three Forks to move (1908-1910) one mile up the Missouri River from its 1863 townsite, as happened with many sister towns in the developing West. Milwaukee Railroad purchasing agent John Q. Adams saw need for a hotel to serve travelers and residents, and he…
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Rancher Ludwig C. Lehfeldt sold 33,000 acres of ranch land to the Milwaukee Road in 1907 prompting the relocation of the Lavina townsite. Realizing the need for a hotel, Lehfeldt hired architects Link and Haire—who drew the plans for the 1910 additions to the Montana State Capitol—to design the…
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The Brunswick Hotel, built 1890-1891, is an excellent example of vernacular commercial architecture, with a Queen Anne emphasis. It is one of Missoula’s oldest remaining hotels associated with the beginning of the railroad era here, when hotels arose to serve rail workers and passengers. The…
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The settlement of Old Scobey relocated here from the Poplar River flats to greet the approaching Great Northern Railway branch line in 1913. By the time the first train arrived on Thanksgiving Day, the two-story Commercial Hotel—today the south half of the courthouse—was the new townsite’s largest…
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One of the few remaining original buildings on Circle’s main street, the Gladstone Hotel welcomed its first guests in the new town on Christmas Day of 1915. Just over a year before, Circle town lots first went on sale. Built to serve travelers on the promised Great Northern Railroad, the Gladstone…
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In the 1920s and 1930s, private automobiles replaced railroads as Americans’ primary means of long-distance travel. This meant that, among many other things, Glacier National Park was transformed from a private playground for the relative few who could afford train fare into a true “public pleasure…
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Great Northern Railway chairman of the board Louis Hill dubbed the rugged mountains of Glacier National Park “America’s Alps.” Between 1909 and 1913, the Great Northern Railway constructed the Belton Chalet complex under Hill’s direction. It was the first of the Great Northern Railway’s sprawling…
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The Izaak Walton Inn symbolizes the difficulty of keeping the United States’ northernmost transcontinental railroad open during Rocky Mountain winters. Each winter, sixty Great Northern Railway workers were stationed here to clear the rails of snow between Essex and East Glacier. Originally, their…
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Sacred to the Kootenai Indians whose traditional homeland encompasses the west side of Glacier National Park, Lake McDonald began attracting tourists as soon as the railroad reached the region in 1891. Recognizing the value of his property as an overnight destination, homesteader George Snyder…
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On New Year’s Day, 1892, the first steam engine pulled into Kalispell on newly laid tracks. Founded as the main line division point for the Great Northern Railway, Kalispell’s tenure as a railroad town lasted only until 1904, when the main line moved to Whitefish. By that time, however, the town…
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Wooden boats first ferried visitors to these mountains across Lake McDonald in the 1890s. Creation of Glacier National Park in 1910 and the Great Northern Railway’s tourism infrastructure brought many more visitors and the need for transport and sight-seeing boats. Flathead Lake boat-builder J. W.…
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Remote wilderness where a man could live by his own rules drew Bill Adair to northwestern Montana in 1904. He and his wife, Jessie, built a log mercantile on the east side of the North Fork of the Flathead River, supplying goods to the few settlers in the sparsely populated area. When the…
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 When the tracks of the Oregon Short Line reached West Yellowstone in November 1907, Park employee Samuel P. Eagle applied for and was granted a permit to operate a business adjacent to the railway right-of-way. The Eagles, in partnership with the Alex Stuarts, built a tiny 12-by-12-foot general…
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Louis J. Kennedy, forest ranger for the Madison Basin, obtained the first permit to operate a business on this choice commercial property in 1910. Some protested the propriety of his successful application since his mother-in-law also obtained a permit for the choice lot next door. Kennedy Hall was…
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Eastern clients visited dude ranches for authentically western experiences in complete comfort or, as one rancher put it, “home-made bedsteads but forty-pound mattresses.” The B Bar K was no exception. Wealthy Chicagoan J. Fred Butler bought the ranch from homesteader Clarence Lytle in 1927. The…
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James Norris (Dick) Randall, “The Man who put the ‘Dude’ in Dude Ranching,” worked as a cowboy before heading to Yellowstone National Park in 1888. There, as a stagecoach driver for tourists, he soon recognized the business potential of outfitting hunting adventures for wealthy easterners and…
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Sweeping views of the Spanish Peaks, the Madison Range, and the Gallatin Canyon provided a magnificent setting for Augustus Frank Crail to locate his ranching headquarters. Crail carved out a 960-acre ranch purchasing three homesteads, school lands, and railroad property in 1902. He, his wife…
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Nestled between dramatic cliffs and the Yellowstone River, this collection of buildings catered to the tourist trade between Livingston and Yellowstone National Park. Local entrepreneur John Hepburn came to Montana in 1888 and worked for many years in America’s first national park. In 1906, he…
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As a teenager, Alfred Croonquist guided fishing trips and dreamed of a place where eastern visitors could enjoy Montana’s bounty. In 1919, the first building on the banks of the West Fork of Rock Creek was completed. Camp Senia, named for Alfred’s wife, was the first, and is now the only intact…
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Red Lodge was at the heart of a tourism boom in the 1950s when the federal Mission 66 program brought improvements to national parks. Visitors by the hundreds traveled over the stunning Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone Park. The Yodeler Motel, once one of several busy nearby hostelries during the…
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The number of motels in Billings grew rapidly as the national economy boomed after World War II. Millions of Americans took to the road on vacations and for business trips, creating a tremendous need for roadside accommodations. Among all the motels in the Magic City, the Dude Rancher Lodge was the…
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Entrepreneur Matt Korn opened a tiny restaurant here in 1930 featuring a drive-in window, an idea he imported from southern California. Matt’s Place was likely Montana’s first drive-in, but unlike its California counterparts, this business never advertised. Good food built its reputation and…
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