The Milwaukee Railroad's "Duck Bridge" from 1979.A third railroad eventually made its way into the small communities of Bonner and Milltown. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad, also known as the Chicago Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railroad, came through on the south side of the Clark Fork in 1909. A spur from the main line of the Milwaukee, as it came to be known, crossed the river well above the Milltown Dam “reservoir” on a covered bridge.

It was especially significant for the Blackfoot Mill (and later Anaconda) that in 1910 the Milwaukee acquired the Big Blackfoot Railway and ran the spur track to the logging camps near Potomac. This played a vital role in bringing timber from the Blackfoot valley to the mills. The Milwaukee acquired the rights to bring all the logs into the mill, even those that came in on the Northern Pacific from the Thompson Falls area were switched into the mill by the Milwaukee

The main line of the Milwaukee ran through Missoula and on to the west coast. The Anaconda Company encouragement of electrification of the railroad (which would also help distribution of Anaconda’s copper) was no doubt a factor in the decision to reconstitute some of the western lines around 1912. The spur line to the mill was not electrified.

The bridge, built in 1910 across the Clark Fork was originally wooden, hence the cover over it to protect it from the weather. It was refurbished in 1934 and given steel supports in the 1950s. The cover was removed, and now it became known as the Duck Bridge as hunters used to shoot ducks from it. Many Bonner area children swam near the bridge.  The Milwaukee went bankrupt in 1977 and the track was abandoned in 1978 and the bridge was removed shortly thereafter.

A Shay Engine used to haul logs out of the Blackfoot. By 1900 the Big Blackfoot Milling Company had largely depleted its nearby timber supplies and moved further up the Blackfoot. The mill, now owned by the Anaconda Company, got most of its timber from logs cut and dumped into the river and floated down to Bonner. Three logging camps were established at Potomac, where over 300 horses were used to haul logs out of the woods in winter.

The mill decided to build semi-permanent camps further up the river and bought two Shay engines from Lima Locomotives in Lima, Ohio. They hauled all the materials, including the disassembled engines, in wagons and sleighs 11 miles up the Blackfoot to McNamara’s Landing. They constructed the Big Blackfoot Railroad from the landing through Potomac to Greenough, some 14 miles. It was completed by 1904, but horses still brought the logs to the railroad in the winter. This track had temporary branch lines, which could be moved when an area was cleared of timber. When logs reached McNamara’s Landing, they were dumped in the river and floated to Bonner.

In 1913, Anaconda sold the Big Blackfoot Railway to the Milwaukee Railroad who completed the line to McNamara’s Landing and eventually on into Bonner from Potomac. To get to Milwaukee’s main line, it crossed the Clark Fork over the so-called Duck Bridge just east of the Milltown Dam. Lumber from th e mill would go into Missoula and then be attached to trains going east or west.

One of the Shay engines remains today resting at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula.

When construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad (NP) began in Montana in 1881, communities awaited its arrival with great anticipation. By the late 1880s NP promotions were bringing hundreds of optimistic settlers to Montana and other western states. The railroad would eventually go from Wisconsin to Washington’s Puget Sound, and although citizens would benefit from the railroads, the timber interests initially had the most to gain.

Northern Pacific Railroad map, circa 1900.

In 1864 Congress had granted 40 alternate sections of public land to the NP along its right-of-way in the territories of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington as well as 20 alternate sections in the states of Oregon and Minnesota, for a total of some 14 million acres. Particularly in western Montana, these lands were heavily timbered.

It is not surprising that the mercantile interests in Missoula quickly allied themselves with the railroad; there were huge profits to be made. In 1881, the NP awarded a contract to Andrew Hammond’s company, Eddy, Hammond & Co., to provide the NP with everything necessary (from lumber for railroad ties to food for the construction workers) to complete 175 miles of track from the Little Blackfoot River to the Thompson River. This lucrative arrangement began a long-term intertwined relationship between the railroad and the lumber interests. Eddy, Hammond & Co. responded quickly and built lumber mills at Wallace (Clinton) and Bonita.

Hammond, and partners further expanded on this opportunity in August of 1882. They formed a partnership with Marcus Daly, who was established as Butte’s “Copper King,” and Washington Dunn, incorporating the Montana Improvement Company (MIC). This corporation could conduct business in Montana, Washington, and Idaho and was poised to take advantage of lumber opportunities the incorporators envisioned would accompany the completion of the NP’s transcontinental railroad, which was marked with a gold spike in 1883 at Gold Creek, 60 miles up the Clark Fork River.

Lumber for the mine shafts and smelters was the primary use for the lumber but soon lumber for building was in demand as well. The Northern Pacific provided over half of the $2 million capital for MIC. Then the NP granted MIC a 20-year contract to supply lumber, cordwood, and wood products along 925 miles of their track from Miles City, Montana, to Walla Walla, Washington, at half the rate they charged others. By 1886, Hammond had opened a “permanent” lumber mill at Bonner, which was initially called the Big Blackfoot Milling Company.

The approach of the railroad in the Bonner area meant additional construction jobs. Initially, John McCormick leased his land to workers, who could build homes on the leased lots. Most lots were taken by mill workers, as those jobs were more permanent than railroad construction jobs. One boarding house was identified as home for Japanese railway workers, but there were people of other nationalities who worked on the railroad as well. Until recently, lands in the railroad right-of-way continued to be owned and leased by the railroad (and its successor, Montana Rail Link). After construction, only a few workers were needed to oversee business. In 1905, NP employed only two section foremen, one telephone operator, and one NP Express and Railway Company agent.

The Northern Pacific Depot in Bonner. The Northern Pacific moved track locations in West Riverside in 1908 so that it could have a double track. NP had to build several new bridges across the Clark Fork to accommodate its new (and current) location. Grading was done with equipment pulled by horses, and a number of temporary horse barns were built. As with the initial railroad construction, many of the new construction workers lived in Milltown. The NP station, Bonner Depot, was located just east of Bonner. Mail arrived by train daily, and once a month the mill payroll was delivered by NP’s Express Company.

William A. Clark also relied heavily on the Northern Pacific. In 1910-11, he transported his sawmill by NP rail from Lothrup, west of Missoula, to Milltown. The new Western Lumber Company was electric, powered by Clark’s dam, but the presence of Northern Pacific was vital for the operation of both the mill and his street car line. When NP moved tracks, Clark quickly obtained the old track, which he used for the street car. He also built a spur line from the NP track to the Western Mill so logs could be offloaded into the river and floated to the mill; for this he used a small “dinkey” engine. The Western originally used the streetcar bridge, but it proved too dangerous.

Two railroads crossed the tiny communities of Bonner-Milltown in the early part of the 20th century. The transcontinental Northern Pacific, so deeply tied to A. B. Hammond and the interests of the Montana Improvement Company came through first, stopping at Bonner Depot before hurrying east and west.  Its ability to move lumber from the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) and the Western Lumber Company to Clark’s and Anaconda’s mines and smelters in Butte and Anaconda was vital to the area.

By 1904, the ACM had begun to construct a logging railroad up the Blackfoot River to bring logs from the Blackfoot region more efficiently. Their railroad began by operating Shay locomotives from Greenough to McNamara where the logs were dumped off into the river and floated to Bonner. This rapidly proved more efficient than the long log drives. By 1910 the Big Blackfoot Railway was incorporated and construction began to extend the line all the way to Bonner.

In 1913 the Milwaukee Railroad (Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad) purchased the Big Blackfoot Railway from the Anaconda Company and completed the track to Bonner. They brought logs from the logging camps in the Blackfoot to the Bonner mill until the mid-1930s when yet another form of transportation edged its way into the logging scene.  Logging trucks could go places the railroad could not and offered even more efficiency.

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul Railroad, first known as the Chicago Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railroad, was the second transcontinental railroad to arrive in Missoula. Its route came through on the south side of the Clark Fork in 1909.  It built a spur line with a covered bridge across the Clark Fork well above the reservoir, connecting at the mill site to the Big Blackfoot Railway.

Men could take it to the logging camps and as people moved up the Blackfoot to settle,  the railroad became part of their lives. During World War I, armed guards were stationed at the tunnels and rail bridges in Bonner-Milltown, as they were elsewhere in the country. After the War the increased use of the railroad to move logs spelled the end of the log drives. Year-round movement of the logs meant that the mills could also operate on a year round basis. 

There were no guards in World War II, but many a train carried off Bonner-Milltown’s men and women to serve in the Armed Forces. After the Depression, and the increased use of trucks, considerably less timber was harvested in the valley. The Milwaukee track was finally abandoned in 1978, and the bridge, which had had its cover removed in the 1950s, was also removed.  (Without its cover, it had been known as the Duck Bridge since hunters often shot ducks from it.)  Only the NP track, which is still used used by Montana Rail Link, remains in the 21st century.