Here's a photo I took on July 06, 1989, THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO, of High Iron Travel's EXPLORERS III chartered train when we made a brief stop at the foot of Main Street in Mobridge, SD. I verified our departure time and calculated that I had enough time to walk a couple blocks up the street to get this photo. This line became "freight-only" sometime in the 1960s, when a Butte-Minneapolis train was discontinued and was a shortened version of the Seattle-Chicago OLYMPIAN HIAWATHA, discontinued in early 1961.

Just above the photo is a link for a screen shot from GOOGLE Streetview of what Main Street looked like thirty-three years later in 2022. It looks like the biggest things that have happened are some trees that have been planted and the grain elevator in the distance on the right has been torn down.

This special train originated in Spokane, WA and traveled on Montana Rail Link over the ex-NP branch lines to Polson and Darby and then went to Livingston by way of Helena (the Butte Line over Homestake Pass was out-of-service, and still is). We then backtracked to Helena Jct. and took the BN over the now-out-of-service ex-GN line to Great Falls. We then made a round-trip to Fort Benton and then a round-trip to the Canadian border at Sweet Grass. Then we ran from Great Falls to Mossmain on ex-GN track and worked our way through Laurel on ex-NP track and down to Cody, WY on ex-CB&Q track. Then we backtracked through Laurel, and traveled through Billings on the ex-NP to Terry, MT where we switched to the ex-Milwaukee and ran on that all the way to Appleton, MN where we switched back to ex-GN track via Benson and Willmar, to Minneapolis. Then we made a side trip to Amery, WI by using the Minnesota Transfer, Soo Line and Wisconsin Central railroads. Then we ran from Withrow, MN to Forest Park, IL on the Wisconsin Central railroad (ex-SOO Line) via Stevens Point. Lastly, we took the B&OCT for nine miles from Forest Park to Union Ave. in Chicago and then one mile of ex-CB&Q track to get us into Chicago Union Station where, sadly, the 10-day trip came to an end.

The chances of a trip like this running today are zero. Some of the lines we rode are either out-of-service or possibly abandoned. Clark Johnson and Nona Hill and their High Iron Travel Company ran an amazing number of trips similar to this and an in-depth article has recently been published about them in the Summer 2025 edition of CLASSIC TRAINS. A photo by my friend Neil Lang of this train appears on pages 3 and 48.

Here are some other posts I've made on AP where I've discussed the special trains and trips organized by the husband-and-wife team of Clark Johnson and Nona Hill and their High Iron Travel Company:

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