The
Blackfoot Confederacy is the name given to four Native American tribes in the Northwestern Plains/
Great Plains, which include the North Piegan the South Piegan, the Blood, and the Siksika tribes. In the beginning they occupied a large territory stretching from the North Saskatchewan River in Canada to the Missouri River in Montana. The four groups, sharing a common language and culture, had treaties of mutual defense, gathered for ceremonial rituals, and freely intermarried.
The Blackfoot have not lost their culture or their language. Today, there are approximately 25,000 Blackfoot members. The Piegan Blackfoot are located on the Blackfoot Nation in northwestern Montana near Browning. The other three tribes are primarily located in Alberta, Canada.
Blackfoot, or Siksika, is an
Algonquian language spoken by 8000 people in southern Alberta and northern Montana. The two main dialects are called Pikanii and Siksika Blackfoot. Many children are still learning Blackfoot, but the language is currently undergoing linguistic shift, with 'Old Blackfoot' being spoken by older generations and 'New Blackfoot' being spoken by younger ones. Blackfoot is a polysynthetic language with complex verb morphology and fairly free word order.
Chief Mountainm known as Nínaiistáko by the Blackfeet, has been a sacred mountain to Native American tribes for hundreds of years. Explorers in the late 18th century refered to it as "Kings Peak" on maps produced in the United Kingdom in 1795. Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, saw the mountain in 1805 and called it "Tower Mountain". The name was changed in the late 19th century in reflection of Blackfeet naming of the mountain which was "Great Chief". The northwestern Nakoda Tribes, called it also Huga Baha ?Chief Hill?.
Chief Mountain remains sacred to many First Nations peoples from both the US and Canada. Natives from all over North America travel to the base of the mountain for
sweet grass
ceremonies. In the early 1900s native burial sites scattered along the base of the mountain. Elders from Southern Alberta's Siksika Band, where the Great Chief Crowfoot hailed and other First Nation groups have an oral tradition that near the end of days, a Great White God would appear from the top of Chief Mountain and upon his departure, the mountain would crumble and be destroyed.
Blackfeet Country offers year round hiking, camping, boating, fishing, picniking, swimming, horseback riding, rodeos, water sports, snow sports and various cultural events.
The Rocky Mountain Front in Montana contains some of the last relatively untouched prestine native prairie lands in the northern Great Plains Region. The front forms the eastern boundary of what is called the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem". This area of Montana is prime black bear, cougar, deer, elk, grizzly bear, lynx, moose, wolf, and wolverine. It is one of the few places in North America where grizzly bear habitat still extends onto the prairie. Extensive numbers of prairie rattlesnake are also found there.
The Izaak Walton Hotel was built in 1939, by The Great Northern Railroad under contract with Addison Miller Company, to build and operate a hotel and lunchroom on railroad land at Walton, Montana. It was originally built to accommodate train crews who worked in helper service, snow removal on the line over Marias Pass, including possiblity for Glacier National Park Resort.
Lewis and Clark National Forest spreads across thirteen counties, seven mountain ranges, is characterized by coniferous forests, woody valley bottoms, high mountain peaks and broad grassy meadows. The Forest provides opportunities for public recreation ranging from scenic drives, hiking, OHV riding and horseback riding to camping, snowshoeing, skiing and snowmobiling. The public can cut Christmas trees, gather firewood, hunt for big game, fish our streams, and find many other activities in this diverse area of public land.
In December 1889 John Frank Stevens, "principal engineer of the Great Northern Railway" and Coonsah "Flathead Indian guide" discover and charted Marias Pass. The pass proved ideal for a railroad, because its approach was broad and open, within a valley ranging from one to six miles wide, and at a gentle grade that would not require extensive excavation or rockwork. Construction of the railroad through the pass began on August 1, 1890, starting from
Fort Assinniboine toward Marias Pass, followed the Middle Fork of the Flathead River west of the
Continental Divide.
In 1887 Glasgow was founded and named after Glasgow in Scotland, as a railroad town by James J. Hill, Great Northern Railroad along the Hi-Line. Glasgow grew during the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the construction of the Fort Peck Dam.
Glasgow is part of the great plains region with shortgrass prairie and fertile cropland along the Milk and Missouri Rivers, offers recreational opportunities as limitless as the big sky of Montana.
Antelope and mule deer inhabit the open and rougher terrain of Valley County, with white-tailed deer abound along rivers and streams, and world-class elk and bighorn sheep herds inhabit the Missouri River along
Fort Peck Lake Reservoir. The
Prairie Pothole Region produces thousands of ducks and geese, prefect habitate for pheasants are found in agricultural areas, native sharp-tailed, sage grouse and other praire birds are plentiful in grassy and prairie-based wildlife habitat.
The
Great Plains
is a landscape that has been valued by humans for centuries from the Native Americans who inhabited it to the artists, photographers, wilderness enthusiast, explorers and fur trappers.
Northern Great Plains of the Glasgow Area has a great environment for Montana's Angler who realize that where you stay on your rail adventure is an important ingredient to the overall enjoyment, with aboundance of walleye, northern pike, chinook salmon, lake trout and smallmouth bass in Fort Peck Reservoir, and the Missouri River both above and below the lake offers great fishing for a variety of native and introduced species. Hunters and anglers rarely experience crowding in this least populous region of the state, but the Glasgow community along Montana's Hi-Line offer plenty of accommodations and amenities for visitors and residents.
Glosgow offers BMX and Mountain Bike Riders the most scenic road and off road riding to vast wilderness destinations areas in Montana. A paradise for hikers, primitive camping, horseback adventures as an obseratory of natural wildlife habitate.
Meriwether Lewis, on May 8th, 1805, during the Lewis and Clark Expedition wrote, "The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonfull of milk. From the colour of its water we called it Milk River."
Havre was home of the first European-American settlement at
Fort Assinniboine
, first garrisoned by the United States Army in 1879. Fifteen of the original 104 structures from the fort are still standing. Originally named Bullhook Bottoms, the town met in a series of meetings to determine a new name. The original settlers were given the final decision, and due to a strong French influence, the town was renamed Havre. Simon Pepin the "Father of Havre," was a typical Montana entrepreneur. Born in Quebec, Canada, he emigrated to Montana in 1863, and became a contractor, furnishing supplies for the construction of Forts Custer, Assinniboine, and Maginnis.
Havre was incorporated in 1893, primarily to serve as a major railroad service center for the
Great Northern Railway, built by
James J. Hill, as best location midway between Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Pepin purchased ranch lands near Fort Assinniboine, when James J. Hill was builting the Great Northern Railway across northern Montana, Pepin convinced James J. Hill to build his locomotive shops at Havre, on property owned by Pepin. Pepin became a major contributor to Havre's economic growth through his cattle, real estate, and banking enterprises. Havre is the eighth-largest city in Montana, and the largest city in the Montana section of the Hi-Line.
RESERVATIONS: 1-800-872-7245 - Mile Post 1475
Coach - Sleeper & Dinning - Lounge - Baggage Services - Mile Post
EASTBOUND
TRAIN NUMBER
DEPARTURE
8
11:42am
WESTBOUND
TRAIN NUMBER
DEPARTURE
7
5:22pm
From 1886 to 1907, the Montana Central Railway was a railway company which operated in Montana, by James Jerome Hill's St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, and in 1889 became the legendary Great Northern Railway, as the eastern terminus of the Shelby appears as the eastern terminus
Northern Transcon of the
Marias Pass on
hi line currenty route for the Emire Buider.
Shelby once serviced the following Great Northern Transcons Passenger Trains:
GN 31,
Empire Builder, Running Time 35:55 hours, Average Speed 49.61MPH
GN 27,
Western Star, Running Time 40:00 hours, Average Speed 44.55MPH
GN 32, Empire Builder, Running Time 37:50 hours, Average Speed 47.10MPH
GN 28,
Western Star, Running Time 39:20 hours, Average Speed 44.84MPH
Shelby is the railroad northern crossroads to
Sweetgrass Sub-Division, Montana boundry crossing to Coutts, Alberta, Canada and southern crossroads to Great Falls Route
Shelby contines to be an important hi-line rail services for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Rail Intermodal Terminal
Map and is the northern most inland
Port Authority serving the Uunited States, Canada and Mexico.
RESERVATIONS: 1-800-872-7245 - Mile Post 1168
Coach - Sleeper & Dinning - Lounge - Baggage Services - Mile Post
EASTBOUND
TRAIN NUMBER
DEPARTURE
8
4:33pm
WESTBOUND
TRAIN NUMBER
DEPARTURE
7
11:41am
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States gained possession of present day Eastern Montana encompassed by the Missouri and Yellowstone River drainage basins east of the Continental Divide and south of the Northern Divide. The Lewis and Clark expedition first passed through the vicinity of the future location of Wolf Point, camping southeast of the site of the present day city on May 5, 1805. Meriwether Lewis remarked in his journal entry of that day, "The country is as yesterday beatifull in the extreme." He went on to record a description of the varied and abundant wildlife of the area including the future namesake of Wolf Point
On June 30, 1914, the Fort Peck Indian Reservation was opened for general settlement for non-Native homesteading. The opening of the reservation, and the naming of Wolf Point as a division point on the Great Northern Railway in 1917 contributed to Wolf Point's rapid early growth
The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation is home to two separate American Indian nations, each composed of numerous bands and divisions. The Sioux divisions of Sisseton, Wahpetons, the Yanktonais, and the Teton Hunkpapa are all represented. The Assiniboine bands of Canoe Paddler and Red Bottom are represented. The Reservation is located in the extreme northeast corner of Montana, on the north side of the Missouri River.
Dating back to 1903, a contest of horsemanship and celebration of indigenous culture, was organized, known as the Ride'em Sioux Celebration, the oldest rodeo in Montana. In 1921, the town commercial club sponsored a permanent committee to make arrangements for the newly renamed "Wolf Point Stampede". The first annual stampede was held to coincide with the Palmer Brothers' Wild Animal Circus, the last weekend in July, 1921
To experience the authentic Montana western cowboy traditions, along with hankering good time of the Wild Horse Stampede a real Wolf Point,
Montana Cowboy Rodeo. As a spectator you can reminisce Montana's western adventures of times long ago and the tradition of the cowboy that lives on in wolf Point. Feel the raw cowboy rugged emotions and marvel at the athletic abilities of horsemenship and the riders passion in every event. So grab your cowboy hat, boots and saddle for a rail adventure on the Empire Builder Hi-Line Western Rodeo.
Montana Hi-Line, seem like a distinct region on earth, with its
Great Plains of unique landforms, undisturbed, is its greatest sense of vast western wilderness landscapes immensity wildlife and the distances seems overpowering beauty and splendor. Wolf Point, Montana's imposing structures and the abundance of simple grandeur of soft fusion of earth and sky on horizon that presents endless empire adventure.
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