Here's a photo taken on July 03, 1989, THIRTY-THREE YEARS AGO, of High Iron Travel's Explorers III chartered train at Ft. Benton, Montana. This line was used into the 1950s or 60s by Great Northern's Western Star passenger train when it deviated off the mainline to serve Great Falls. GN and BN ran a RDC car over this line from Havre to Great Falls until the start-up of Amtrak. There is now an abandoned middle segment of this line, with Ft. Benton being at the western end of the abandoned segment.

One of Ft. Benton's claims to fame was the story of a faithful dog who spent years meeting every train at the Ft. Benton station in hopes of being reunited with his master. Here's a link that covers that story:

[www.greatfallstribune.com]

This photo was not taken in sequential order with the previous one I posted. The photo I posted on June 13 was when we were returning from Ft. Benton back to Great Falls.

Here's what the scene looked like in July of 2008. The station is still there, but I doubt if it's still an open agency. Maybe the MofW people still use it.

[goo.gl]