Taming Big Sky Country
Subtitle: The history of Montana transportation from trails to interstates
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Charleston, South Carolina
Language: eng
Number of pages: 143
ISBN-13: 9781626198524
Subjects: Roads; Transportation; History
Description: Drives this breathtaking did not come easy. Cruising down Montana's scenic highways, it's easy to forget that traveling from here to there once was a great adventure. The state's major routes evolved from ancient Native American trails into four-lane expressways in a little over a century. That story is one of difficult, groundbreaking and sometimes poor engineering decisions, as well as a desire to make a journey faster, safer and more comfortable. It all started in 1860, when John Mullan hacked a wagon road over the formidable Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton. It continued until the last section of interstate highway opened to traffic in 1988. Montana Department of Transportation historian Jon Axline charts a road trip through the colorful and inspiring history of trails, roads and superhighways in Big Sky Country.
Notes: Includes bibliographic references (pages 135-139) and index.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgements; title: Introduction. Roads to romance: Getting around in Big Sky Country; title: Part I. Enterprises of incalculable importance: Montana's early roads; title: The Mullan Road; title: The Montana Road; title: A monument above the water: Parson's Bridge; title: The Bozeman trail; title: The Northern Overland Route; title: Toll roads; title: Stagecoach etiquette; title: The iron horse transforms Montana's roads; title: Part II. Getting Montana out of the mud; title: The Montana State Highway Commission; title: A new direction; title: Modernizing Montana's bridges; title: Part III. The Montana Highway Department takes the reins; title: The Federal Aid Road Act of 1921; title: When Montana's highways had names: The trail associations; title: The Good Roads law; title: Part IV. Transforming Montana's highways during the dirty thirties; title: The Beartooth Highway; title: The New Deal; title: Howdy everyone! Glad to see you!; title: Countdown to war; title: Part V. A time of unprecedented construction: The postwar years; title: Preparing for peace in a time of war, 1942-1945; title: The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944; title: From war to peace, 1946-1956; title: Funding problems; title: The national system of interstate highways; title: Montana's white crosses: The roadside fatality markers; title: Part VI. Your highway dollars at work: The interstate highways; title: The golden age of Montana's interstate system, 1956-1966; title: A tough piece of work: Interstate 15 and the Wolf Creek Canyon; title: The interstates, 1968-1988; title: Notes; title: Bibliography; title: Index; title: About the author.