Mineral County(23) ► ADJACENT TO MINERAL COUNTY Missoula County(150) ► Sanders County(26) ► Clearwater County, Idaho(37) ► Shoshone County, Idaho(60) ►
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Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
“With the cinders and ashes falling all around him, and so dark that he could not see his horse’s head at three o’clock in the afternoon, [Barringer] rode up to the face of the fire…[and] collected his scattered crews….” - . . . — — Map (db m45505) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 9).
“Fires of yesterday and last night have swept practically all the country from Avery to St. Regis. Nothing could have lived in the mountains last evening except for the tunnels.” - E. J. Pearson, Chief Engineer, Puget Sound . . . — — Map (db m45511) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
“All that remained was to salvage what material that could be salvaged from the disaster, and reorganize for a new start.” - Clarence B. Swim, Assistant Forester
As the railroad operated rescue trains, Missoula residents . . . — — Map (db m45509) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
“The whole twenty-five miles of railroad…between Avery and the Taft Tunnel was swept by a consuming blast of fire, so hot that pick handles lying in the open beside the track were utterly consumed.” - Elers Koch, Forest . . . — — Map (db m45510) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
Just getting groceries up here could be a challenge
Deep winter snow sometimes made getting to school, going to the doctor, or buying food an adventure.
Families living at the top of the Bitterroot Mountains, here at East Portal and . . . — — Map (db m45544) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
“I won’t die here in this creek… [I’m] getting out of here.” - Pinkie Adair, homesteader and camp cook
During the 1910 Fires, perseverance often meant the difference between life and death. At 26 years old, Ione . . . — — Map (db m45503) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
The Milwaukee Road faced the daunting task of drilling a tunnel 23 feet high, 16 feet wide and 1.7 miles long into Idaho.
It was a damp, dark, dirty dig. After the approaches were prepared in 1906, and a faltering start in 1907, work . . . — — Map (db m45550) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
Once a critical part of the longest electrified railroad in the world, the broken concrete foundation to your left is all that remains of the two-story, brick East Portal Substation.
Essentially a gigantic electric vault, East Portal was . . . — — Map (db m45542) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Route 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Montana Highway 90).
The Last Transcontinental Railroad
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway’s Pacific Extension survived for 71 colorful years. Racing silk trains sped along the route, and long, rumbling troop trains carried men and materiel through . . . — — Map (db m45548) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) near Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
…and Historians Trace the History along the Trail.
When the Milwaukee Road abandoned its route over the Bitterroot Mountains, salvage companies stripped the line of all the rails, ties, signals, posts and everything else of value. The . . . — — Map (db m45549) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
Buried beneath busy Interstate 90 in the valley below are the bones of what the Chicago Tribune in 1909 named “the wickedest city in America”.
This “den of iniquity” sprouted up when the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. . . . — — Map (db m45552) HM
Near Rainy Creek Road (Federal Road 506) 2 miles south of Exit 5 (Taft) (Interstate 90).
“The fire by this time was an awe-inspiring spectacle, the whole horizon to the west was aflame and the noise caused by the falling timber was terrific.” - Roy A. Phillips, Lolo Forest Guard
One of the most devastating . . . — — Map (db m45508) HM
