Old Missoula

Missoula Gas Company and the World’s Shortest Belt Line Railroad

Dentist ‘Ties Up’ Railroads

By Al Darr

Free enterprise found a happy home in Montana.

Back when the income tax was a bad joke and a bureaucrat’s pipedream, inventive men came here in droves to coin money.

Dr. Joseph Oettinger, who fixed teeth in the Fedderson Block, was one such Montanan with an eye for opportunity.

In 1908, Dr. Oettinger owned a lovely acreage in Missoula’s Knowles Addition, a hilly chunk of land conveniently caught between the Northern Pacific’s Bitter Root track and the Milwaukee Railroad’s main line.

Railroad men had vision in those days. Milwaukee and NP management behaved like brothers in sharing one another’s track through the difficult Hell Gate Canyon passage.

The NP had a grand scheme going to lay rail through Lolo Pass, and by 1909 company surveyors were actually chaining the route.

But no one, apparently, thought seriously of an interchange at the NP-Milwaukee crossing in Missoula. Dr. Oettinger thought of it, and he owned the only feasible land for such an interchange.

In the spirit of the day, he built his own track, joining forces with George P. Smith, a Michigan millionaire’s brother, in the Missoula Gas Co.

Missoula Gas, the firm, was in trouble right quick. Pipes leaked, for one thing, and connections lagged, so that by 1923 only 1,400 gas users were on the company books. As early as 1918, the firm was in receivership, existing, as The Missoulian said, from hand to mouth.

But Smith and Oettinger’s Missoula Railroad prospered. The 290-foot-long single track just lay there making money, 50 cents for every Milwaukee or NP car that rolled across the interchange.

Many a retired locomotive engineer remembers crawling up and down that tortuous track. One such veteran, W. H. (Turk) Minnerly of Missoula, said the really steep grade was mercifully short, just two or three cars long, so a single switch engine could make the haul.

Oettinger, Smith and company had a golden egg type operation there, because the railroads must have figured it cheaper to pay the 50-cent toll than to build their own expensive track across less favorable terrain. By 1926, the “belt line” railroad was estimated to be worth $40,000 to $50,000, earning $2,000 to $3,000 annually. Aside from nominal taxes, all the gross was net.

But the railroad went with the gas company out of receivership for a paltry $51,000, then was sold lock, stock and barrel to Robert C. Cardell and associates for $235,000.

Original bondholders were left with paper totaling $600,000 on its face and worth precisely nothing. George Smith’s daughter Sarah and the Oettinger estate even lost their railroad when Judge Theodore Lentz ruled for Cardell.

Cardell’s lawyer, H. H. Parsons, quipped somewhat ungraciously after the legal fight that Cardell was “now the president of a railroad . . . not as long as some of the transcontinental roads over the country, but just as wide.”

Sarah Smith and the Oettinger heirs must have bit their lips at that rare observation.

Missoula’s short line operated under various ownership from 1909 until after World War II, when the Northern Pacific built its own interchange. Traffic was never heavy over the belt, but it was steady.

The genius behind it was clearly Joe Oettinger, who might have stuck to teeth and railroading without the grief of a busted gas manufactory.

Oettinger liked fast automobiles, too, and he pushed them to impossible limits. Full of high optimism in the summer of 1909, the salty dentist raced his machine at 56.6 miles per hour across the “prairie” southwest of Missoula. He tried to clear the Dinsmore ditch (14 feet across) but his machine stopped short at the far bank.

Oettinger himself kept going, said The Missoulian editor, and so he did. But he should have stayed out of the gas business.

The above article, along with several pictures, appeared in The Missoulian on July 24, 1966. Three captions with these photographs accompanied the article are of interest and appear below:

1.  Missoula Railroad Rediscovered – Buried deep in undergrowth now is the lower grade of Missoula’s belt line railroad, for more than 35 years the only Milwaukee-Northern Pacific interchange this side of Butte. Youngsters peer through the summer foliage at abandoned pilings across irrigation ditch just south of Milwaukee tracks. (Staff Photos by Al Darr)

2.  Strategic Juncture of Milwaukee and Northern Pacific Bitter Root tracks offered Dr. Joseph Oettinger a golden opportunity in 1908-09. Dentist built his own track, a tight curve up the grade seen here. Engineers dared not put too much speed on their trains because the bend was so sharp.

3.  Rusty Relic of a 290 foot-dream railroad remains today on the upper grade behind the old Missoula Gas and Coke Co. site, now used by Montana Power Co. for a gas pumping station. Track runs maybe 100 feet down from Bitter Root branch, then stops. Lower track was ripped up after World War II.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349826110/

 

One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the above article was that the little railroad at one time was touted as the world’s shortest railroad. An article published in the Electric Railway Journal on November 10, 1917 briefly addressed the railroad when it became involved in a court case:

The Shortest Railroad in the World?

Filing of a court action in Missoula, Mont., disclosed the fact that the Missoula Belt Line Railway is probably the shortest railway in the world. F. J. Bischoff and E. D. Mulroney, attorneys for the company owning the 100-ft. railroad line, filed suit in the district court against the Missoula Gas Company, George T. Smith and Ella A. Smith, for $8,000 said to have been collected by the defendants in their capacity as agents for the railway. The line connects the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line in South Missoula, where the tracks of the former pass over the latter. The line has no equipment, no employees, and no stations, but gets its earnings by renting its tracks to the Milwaukee for transfer privileges. The Milwaukee has agreed, the complaint says, to pay 50 cents for every car taken over the line, and it is estimated that 16,000 cars have been so transferred.

 

While the Missoula dentist, Joseph Oettinger, was an intriguing figure, Mr. George P. Smith was the real man holding the cards. Smith started making plans for a gas plant in Missoula in 1907.

Information about him appeared in The Journal of Electricity, Power and Gas in 1907:

“Missoula, Mont. – George P. Smith, of Bay City, Mich., president and manager of the Missoula Gas Company, arrived in the city and states that he is in readiness to begin the construction of the gas plant as soon as spring opens. He states that the plant will be up to date and large enough to supply a city of 50,000 persons. The estimated cost of the plant is $250,000. Mr. Smith estimates that the plant will be completed before next fall.”

 

Specific plans for his plant appeared in another journal named Light in July of 1908:

George P. Smith, president of the Missoula Gas Company, announces that his concern will be ready to furnish gas within three months; that the laying of pipes will begin within a short time; that the building now nearly completed is but the coal bin for the plant and the entire gas-making outfit will cost in the neighborhood of $300,000. It is not generally known to the citizens of this city what an expensive and extensive concern the plant of the gas company is to be. The masonry work for the great coal bin is being rushed and the carpenter work has been given to Contractor Newton, who will start a large force on the job within a few days. The giant holder tanks, which will stand 50 feet above ground and 60 feet below, are now ready for shipment at the factory of the Western Gas Construction Company, of Fort Wayne, Ind., and will be forwarded as soon as the work necessary for their reception has been completed here. The machinery for the plant is being made by the Lloyd Construction Company, of Detroit, and the Missouri Fire Brick Company, of St. Louis, is furnishing the material for the “benches” to be installed in the new concern. Twenty-five thousand bricks are to be shipped, in addition to five carloads already on the ground. On the arrival of Superintendent E. J. Gates from Jackson, Mich., the laying of pipes will begin. Mr. Gates is expected here this week. It is the intention of those in charge of the gas plant to put down 12 ½ miles of pipe this fall and to install over 10 miles in addition next year. The company plans to serve all parts of the city. The coal from which the gas will be made will come from Pennsylvania and Utah. One thousand tons have already been shipped from Pittsburg and are now in hand. The capacity of the bunkers in the coal bin is to be 2,000 tons.

 

In 1914, a mention of the company appeared in Moodys Manual of Public Utilities:

Missoula Gas Co. – Inc. in Mont. Supplies Missoula, Mont. Annual sales 12,000,000 ft. Number of meters, 409. Gas holder capacity, 100,000 ft. Miles of mains 14. Daily output, about 41,000 ft. Furnishes 83 arc lamps, 277 ranges, 74 heaters, and 264 waterheaters. Population served, 12,000.

Capital Stock. – $160,000.

Bonded Debt. – $150,000 First 6s; due 1930. No further details obtainable.

Officers: Geo. P. Smith, Sr. Pres.; Joseph Oettinger, Sec; Helen A. Smith, Tr. D. C. Plank, Mgr., Missoula, Mont. Directors: Geo. P. Smith, Sr., Helena A. Smith, Joseph Oettinger, Missoula, Mont.

Annual meeting, first Monday in April.

General Office, Missoula, Mont.

 

By November of 1914 an article in the publication American Gas Light Journal stated that management of the gas company was changing.

“President George P. Smith, of the Missoula (Mont.) Gas Company, announces a change in the management of that concern. The demands on the company have become so insistent that it has been decided to increase the efficiency of the plant and its service. To do this the company has secured the services of William A. Baehr, of Chicago, as general manager.”

 

An engineer, Baehr would eventually become president of the Great Falls Gas Company and later held officer positions in a number of Power and Light Utility companies in the Chicago area.

By 1917 George Smith and the Missoula Gas Company were the subjects of court action by attorneys representing the owners of the Missoula Belt Line Railroad.

Foreclosure proceedings by holders of the gas company’s mortgage bonds were started in 1918 and the company was put in receivership. Attorney Thomas Marlowe, trustee for the bondholders, was appointed receiver of the company.

By 1919 officers of the company had changed somewhat:

Geo. P. Smith, Sr., Pres., E. W. Kramer, V – P, Helena A. Smith, Sec. & Treas.; C. R. Young, Gen. Supt., Directors: Geo. P. Smith, Sr., Helena A. Smith, E. W. Kramer, E. S. Newton, James Oettinger, Missoula, Mont.

In 1922 Robert C. Cardell from Billings was brought in to manage the Gas company by the receiver, attorney Tom Marlowe.

In 1928 the Missoula Gas and Coke company was sold to the Forshay Company of Minneapolis. Robert Cardell, president of the company, stated that the company’s plant and equipment were valued at quarter million dollars.

 

George P. Smith died in 1928 in Missoula. His obituary below appeared in the Daily Missoulian on April 18, 1928.

George P. Smith Taken By Death

President of First Gas Company

George P. Smith, aged 86 years, president and manager of the first gas company in Missoula; a railroad, light and water plant and gas plant builder in many states, died at a local hospital early yesterday. Mr. Smith, who had been in failing health for three years, had been a patient at the hospital for two weeks.

Mr. Smith, born at Lockport, N. Y., in 1842, spent the major portion of his life in New York and Michigan. In Michigan for a period of years he followed in the footsteps of his father in the lumber business. At one time when $40,000 worth of saw logs were being transported to the sawmill a storm broke over Lake Michigan and the log raft was whipped to pieces and the cargo of logs lost. They drifted to every part of the lake.

For many years Mr. Smith was the financial advisor and business partner of General Alger, later governor of Michigan. It was Mr. Smith who nominated Alger for governor when he was elected. Alger later became secretary of war.

Mr. Smith was a big builder. He built electric and steam roads in New York. He built electric light plants in many states from the north to the south. Some were in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi and even down in Mexico.

“At one time,” Mrs. Smith, the widow said last night, “he built a railroad from Niagara Falls to Buffalo. J. P. Morgan wanted the road and made an offer which Mr. Smith would not accept. Morgan sent word for him to accept the offer or he would be ruined financially. Morgan wanted the road a feeder for the New York Central.

“Mr. Smith would not accept the offer and Morgan did not ruin him,” Later the associates of Mr. Morgan came around to buy the road at my husband’s figures and said they wanted to take their hats off to the only man who had ever beaten them at their own game.

“Mr. Smith said he had thought in early life that he was a Democrat until he went to Washington with his father to hear Lincoln’s inaugural address. When he had heard Lincoln he was a Republican and remained one until his death.

“Mr. Smith was active in politics, perhaps more in his younger days than his later years in Missoula. He was a loyal American and placed his country above everything else. He had a most forgiving nature and was happiest when he was confronted with some big problem. It was the bigger problems which always attracted him.”

Mr. Smith came to Missoula more than 20 years ago. Here he built the first gas plant for Missoula and also the Missoula Belt Line railroad connecting link between the Milwaukee and Northern Pacific lines, the shortest railroad in the United States. He retired from business about five years ago.

When Mr. Smith built the gas plant here, he, with a brother, Henry H. Smith of Bay City, Mich., were the principal shareholders.

Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters. The sons are George, Jr., and Ralph Smith of Pennsylvania; and Ben Smith. The later, who had served on the Mexican border, went to Canada to enlist at the outbreak of the World war and has not been heard from since. The daughters are Mrs. Anna Maxwell of New Jersey and Miss Margery Smith of LaSelle, N. Y.

The body is at the Marsh & Powell undertaking place. The funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Thursday afternoon at the First Methodist Episcopal church. Rev. Charles M. Donaldson will conduct the services and burial will be in Missoula cemetery.

The Smith home is at 640 River street.

 

George Smith’s career had spanned many decades before he ever came to Missoula.

He can be seen in records for Tonawanda N. Y.’s centennial magazine of 1965. Tonawanda is near Buffalo, N. Y.

https://archive.org/stream/northtonawandace00flei#page/40/mode/2up

“In January of 1885 a progressive citizenry with George P. Smith as founder organized the first municipal water works system after many offers were considered by private concerns.

“Mr. Smith was a man of many plans for his village. He organized two trolley companies, building lines to Buffalo an operating service in both Tonawandas. He had franchises for cross town lines, but did not use them. He also built the only “skyscraper” at Webster and Tremont street, the Smith Hotel and assisted in the development of other portions of the business section.”

 

In Michigan he was a director for the Michigan Pipe Company and the Tawas and Bay County Railroad Company. His younger brother Henry B Smith stayed in Bay City Michigan and became wealthy as an owner and investor in lumber mills, sugar plants, pipe and water works plants, and a First National Bank. Beloved as a philanthropist, Henry had a Great Lakes freighter built in his name which was sadly lost in a storm on Lake Superior with all hands on board.

 

Dr. Joseph Oettinger died in an auto accident near Drummond, Montana on June 3, 1920. His vehicle hit a patch of gravel while traveling at a high rate of speed and went over an embankment. A man named E. L. Miller, who was traveling with him, survived the crash.

A Daily Missoulian article on June 4, 1920, noted several interesting facts about Oettinger.

 

“He was the second man in Missoula to own an automobile and had one of the first motorcycles in this city. He attained a country-wide reputation for reckless driving, but was considered one of he most skillful drivers in the northwest. He at one time won a race between Missoula and Bonner and back, the run being made over the treacherous Marshall grade, involving considerable skill and danger.

“Dr. Oettinger sustained some years ago an accident similar to the one which occurred last night, in which he was nearly killed. He was making a record-breaking trip to Polson, when the motorcycle he was driving encountered some loose soil and he was seriously injured.”

It stated that he was 48 years old and had come to Missoula from Illinois in 1896. He had 2 sisters, Rose Oettinger of Chicago and, “Another sister, Miss Henrietta Oettinger , and Miss Delphone Cyr, formerly of Missoula, are the owners of an apartment house in Portland.”