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Looking Back:
A Pictorial History of the Flathead Valley
by Kathryn L. Mckay

Chapter 2
1892-1904

The Arrival of the Railroad

Transportation,
Communities
Agriculture
Logging
Mining and Oil Fields
Forest Reserves

Men using ropes to lower a wagon down the road through Bad Rock Canyon, 1897. Early Flathead travelers long remembered hills where wagons had to be "snubbed." These dreaded hills included the Bad Rock Canyon tote road (above today's Highway 2), Angel Hill south of Lakeside (west of today'as Highway 93), and the hill near Anaconda Creek on the road between Belton and Kintla Lake (now the Inside Road in Glacier National Park). Great Northern Railway crew near Kalispell. At the peak of railroad construction through the Flathead Valley in 1891, the contractor had some six thousand men employed as surveyors, graders, track layers, teamsters, cooks, and so on. Laborers earned two dollars a day, and board cost five dollars a week. The most serious accident during this period was in 1891, when five men were killed while building the Coram trestle.
Only $27.00 Plus $5.00 Shipping & Handling Bookstores & Non-Profits: Ask about bulk discounts
This 224-page hardcover volume features more than 320 historic photographs of the Flathead Valley, many of which have never before been published. The accompanying text, by Columbia Falls historian Kathryn L. McKay, outlines Flathead Valley history from the 1880's to the 1950's.
Looking Back is fully indexed and includes an extensive bibliography.