Checkerboard in Meagher County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)
The Carroll Trail
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, July 17, 2021
1. The Carroll Trail Marker
Businessmen in Montana Territory were always looking for ways to undercut their competitors. In 1874, the owners of the famous Diamond R Freighting Company tried to steal the lucrative steamboat trade from Fort Benton merchants by building a new port on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Musselshell. Named for Matt Carroll, the settlement was a cruel collection of log huts perched on a cut bank overlooking the river. For the new settlement to be successful it needed a good road to connect it to the outside world.
In 1873, the Diamond R blazed a 225-mile road to Carroll from Helena and the first freight train negotiated the trail to Carroll the following year. While one account claimed that the road had "plentiful supplies of wood and water," other travelers described a forbidding landscape of "little vegetation" that was "incapable of affording sustenance to man or beast." When the road was dry, it took freight trains about a month to make the trip between Carroll and Helena. But when the road was wet it became a "greasy, slippery, fathomless mass of clinging mud, through which the straining animals (could)
this page online
Erected by Montand Department of Transportation.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Industry & Commerce • Roads & Vehicles. A significant historical year for this entry is 1874.
Location. 46° 33.316′ N, 110° 29.916′ W. Marker is in Checkerboard, Montana, in Meagher County. It is on U.S. 12 near Spring Creek Road, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 59053, Checkerboard MT, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Central Montana. It is also in the American Mountain West and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Rupert’s Land and also the Louisiana Purchase.
Also see . . . Early History revolved around Carroll Trail, Fort Maginnis. Montana State Library website entry (Submitted on June 12, 2025, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, July 17, 2021
2. The Carroll Trail Marker
Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, July 17, 2021
3. Interesting rock formation
Credits. This page was last revised on June 12, 2025. It was originally submitted on December 26, 2021, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 765 times since then and 63 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on December 26, 2021, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
