Harlowton's present Milwaukee Road (officially known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad) Depot is actually its second depot, the first sawed into three pieces and moved to another town. This depot was its replacement. Harlowton was made a division point, with switching yards and an engine roundhouse and workshops, meaning that they expected sufficient passenger traffic through the town that the original depot would prove unable to handle the traffic.
The historic district marker out front reads:
MILWAUKEE ROAD HISTORIC DISTRICT
THIS HISTORIC RAILROAD DISTRICT COMMEMORATES THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO BUILT AND FOR SEVENTY YEARS MAINTAINED AND OPERATED ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE RAILROADS IN RAILROAD HISTORY ... A RAILROAD THAT BROUGHT TO CENTRAL MONTANA MORE THAN 28,000 SETTLERS AND THEN SERVED THEIR NEEDS FOR ANOTHER HALF CENTURY .... A RAILROAD THAT CROSSED THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS WITH POWERFUL YET HIGHLY EFFICIENT ELECTRIC ENGINES .... A RAILROAD THAT OPERATED SOME OF THE FASTEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL TRAINS OF MODERN TIMES. ONLY THIS DEPOT AND ROUNDHOUSE REMAIN IN QUIET TESTIONY OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.
The plan for the Harlowton depot dates to a 24' x 60' pattern developed in 1902 that was modified in 1906 to become the "Standard Class A Passenger Station Plan." A single story, wood frame building on a concrete foundation measuring 24' by 188', the building was originally 24' x 165' and a hipped roof addition to house the yard master's office was constructed on the west end in 1944. The depot was closed in 1961 and abandoned by the Milwaukee Road in 1980. Shortly after, Harlowton residents began a crusade to save the depot and as much of the yards and outbuildings as they could. They managed to get the site listed on the National Register as the
Milwaukee Road Historic District in 1988 while turning the site into the present museum.
Other buildings and structures in the district, not generally accessible to the public, include the remains of the round house, the yard master's office, freight house, oil tanks, foreman's office, storeroom, sand tower and well house.
The Milwaukee Road Historic District in Harlowton is significant as the service facility at which trains transferred from conventional motive power (steam through the 1950 's and diesel after that) east of town to the Milwaukee's nationally significant electrified line west of Harlowton. The round house and other buildings within the district housed the work crews who maintained both the conventional and the electrified locomotives. Thus the district illustrated both modes of power. Furthermore, the round house and other buildings constitute one of the most intact railroad division point facilities in Montana. The Milwaukee Road Historic District is also significant for the tremendous impact that the railroad had upon the development and orientation of the community of Harlowton, Montana.
The railroad was by far the largest single employer in the community, with a work force of 100-150 men on a 24-hour basis during the steam locomotive era. Harlowton was chosen as an important division point on the Milwaukee line, and, more significantly, as the eastern terminus of the railroad's major electrification program of the 1910 's. Between 1916 and 1974, from Harlowton to Avery, Idaho, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway (renamed the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railway in 1927) ran the longest stretch of rail line ever to be electrified in the nation. A steady stream of railway officials and representatives of at least seventeen countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America came to the Harlowton division point to observe and learn about this American engineering marvel.
From the NRHP Registration Form