Big Blackfoot Railway Company

Product Details

Intricately engraved antique stock certificate from the Big Blackfoot Railway Company dating back to the early 1900's. This document was printed by Goes and measures approximately 11" (w) by 8 1/4" (h).

Beautiful piece with a vignette of a train exiting a tunnel.

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

The lumber mill of the Big Blackfoot Milling Company was taken over in 1900 by the Anaconda Company who planned to use the lumber in connection with their copper mines. They proceeded to build the Big Blackfoot Railway as a logging line. The original Board of Directors of the railway were: John Gillie, L. O. Evans and C. F. Kelley, of Butte, and John R. Toole and Kenneth Ross, of Missoula.

The line originally ran from Bonners Landing, Montana, on the Blackfoot River, about 40 miles to a point 10 miles east of Ovando, Montana on the Clearwater River. Logs floated down the Clearwater River would be milled and transferred to the Blackfoot River and hence shipped out to the copper mines at Anaconda.

The first 14 miles, from Bonner's Landing through Potomac to Greenough were completed by 1904. Shay geared locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works were used to haul the heavy loads on the line, and one of these is now preserved at Fort Missoula.

An extension of the line of railway of the Big Blackfoot Railway Co. from McNamara Junction to Clearwater, Montana, a distance of approximately 20 miles, was authorized during 1916.

The line was purchased by the Milwaukee Road on December 31, 1915, after which Burt Stimson (1863-1919) was brought in as Resident Engineer to connect the Big Blackfoot Railway to to Milwaukee main line in 1917, after which the logs were shipped out by rail instead of bring floated down the river. The line became part of the Missoula Division of the Milwaukee Road.