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Re: Kalispell railroad removal
Author: Dale Jones
Date: 08-30-2007 - 15:28
As to why the railroads didn't go around Flathead lake. Basically it was because of the Kootenai/Salish Indian Reservation. No railroad could get approval to cross the Reservation until after WWI [about 1925 I think]. Jim Hill and the NP both had plans of going along Flathead Lake in the late 1890's, and the GN did use steamboats on the lake to get supplies from the NP which was "trucked" via wagon from the NP at Ravalli.
I lived in Kalispell a long time and they have always wanted to get rid of the tracks. Come to think of ?? is there any town in the U.S that wants to keep any RR tracks?? Don't they all want to rid themselves of railroads?
There is really only one shipper in "downtown" Kalispell [a grain elevator], as the area becomes more "Aspenized" there will be less reason for any tracks beyond the lumber mills just north of town and who knows how long they will be around. Time will tell.
Talk to ya later,
Dale Jones
www.railroads-of-montana.com
I lived in Kalispell a long time and they have always wanted to get rid of the tracks. Come to think of ?? is there any town in the U.S that wants to keep any RR tracks?? Don't they all want to rid themselves of railroads?
There is really only one shipper in "downtown" Kalispell [a grain elevator], as the area becomes more "Aspenized" there will be less reason for any tracks beyond the lumber mills just north of town and who knows how long they will be around. Time will tell.
Talk to ya later,
Dale Jones
www.railroads-of-montana.com
