A Brief History of Montana's Historic Highways

Dates: September 23, 2024
Meets: M from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
 Location: Bozeman, MT - Museum of the Rockies
Cost:  $0.00

There are still openings remaining at this time.

Date Day Time
09/23/2024Monday3 PM to 5 PM

Please note: This course program requires membership in a 2024-2025 OLLI at MSU Membership

Description

Transportation has been a critical part of Montana's rich and colorful history. John Mullan built the first engineered road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla, Washington, in 1860. Roads built during the gold rush years provided the basis for today's highway system in Montana. This talk will cover the wagon roads of the 1860s, the dawn of the automobile age, the Great Depression and the interstate highway years. The presentation includes stories of engineering triumphs and failures, political scandals, and the rise of Montana's tourism industry.

Program Takeaways

  • Participants will experience how Montana's highway system has changed and evolved over the past 164 years.
  • The story of transportation is illustrated by the rich and colorful history of Montana's roads and bridges.
  • How transportation history impacted the people who experienced it.
Fee:  $0.00

Bozeman, MT - Museum of the Rockies

600 West Kagy Blvd
Bozeman, Montana 59717

Jon Axline

Jon Axline has been the historian and cultural resource manager at the Montana Department of Transportation since 1990. Among his many responsibilities at the department, he writes roadside historical and geological interpretive markers. Jon has contributed to Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Distinctly Montana, and other publications. He is the author of Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, Taming Big Sky Country: A History of Montana Transportation from Trails to Interstates, The Beartooth Highway: A History of America's Most Beautiful Drive, Montana Highway Tales: Curious Characters, Historic Sites and Peculiar Attractions and, most recently, Detour Montana: History by the Roadside. He co-authored Hidden History of Helena, Montana with his late friend and colleague Ellen Baumler.