The LoLo railroad – 1900
A Lolo Railroad that was never built -1900.
Engineer T. A. Clark, who is locating the line of the new Northern Pacific cut-off, is now ready for active work on this side of the mountains. His field force, numbering about 25 persons, arrived yesterday from Spokane, and their start was made today. The surveyors camp is to be established on the LoLo, near Hollensteiner’s ranch, which is some three miles from the mouth of the stream…
An interested crowd this morning watched the departure of Engineer Clark’s gang of railroad surveyors, who are to establish a camp on the LoLo. There were some 25 men in the party, five heavily loaded wagons and the ubiquitous colored cook and Chinese second. The equipment bore every indication of a business stay in the mountains and, as one of the party tersely remarked, “You may yet this fall ride to Lo Lo springs in a palace car.” Most of the men walked out, a distance of about 12 miles, preferring that method rather than wait for the afternoon’s sun cure train.
The above items appeared in the Daily Democrat-Messenger, a Missoula newspaper, on Jan. 10, 1900.