How the Railroad Shaped Our Town

How the Railroad Shaped Our Town. . The Northern Pacific Railroad Company was created by an Act of Congress and signed by President Lincoln on July 2, 1864. Along the developing tracks, new towns were spaced apart every 100-120 miles. In the Yellowstone River Valley, Glendive, Forsyth, Billings, and Livingston were creations of the railroad, Billings was established in 1882 and was named after Fredrick Billings, the Northern Pacific Railway president from 1879-1881. , Generous federal Railroad Acts granted railroads land in alternating sections along their routes. In Montana Territory the railroad was given odd numbered, checkerboard sections, stretching out forty miles off of track. In Billings, two of these odd numbered sections overlapped due to land survey adjustments. The railroad seized the opportunity to maximize development and placed the railroad through the center of these two sections. Montana Avenue, north of the tracks, and Minnesota Avenue, on the south. became the main thoroughfares of Billings. , The first railroad depot of Billings was on the north side of the tracks on Montana Avenue and North 28th Street (North Broadway). Civic buildings including the depot, the courthouse, city hall, the public library, and several prominent churches were constructed on the north side. The south side of the tracks became home to industrial development, the stock yards, red light district, China town, and several notorious saloons.