In 2011 the Three Forks Historical Society rescued the Trident Northern Pacific Railway Station, moving it to Three Forks. The station was scheduled for demolition by its owner, Montana Rail Link. Built at Trident, Montana in 1910 by the Northern Pacific Railroad, the station was the town's major link to the outside world until the advent of improved highways and motor vehicles. Built by the Three Forks Portland Cement Company, the town of Trident was a company town with but one product, cement processed from the surrounding limestone hills. When, in the 1940s and 50s, it became easier to commute from nearby Three Forks, employees, despite the cheap rent available in Trident, began to build houses in Three Forks. Slowly Trident emptied, the post office closed and the railway station closed, remaining unused until being threatened with demolition in 2010.
When the station arrived in Three Forks it was placed at the northern end of a small historical park named
Milwaukee Railroad Park alongside the Milwaukee Road tracks in Three Forks. Nearby is a Milwaukee Railroad caboose which serves as the Three Forks Visitor Information Centre. The rest of the park is dedicated to educating visitors to the town on the importance of the Three Forks area to the settlement and development of Montana. Signs and placards, large and small, relate the story of Three Forks, the Headwaters of the Missouri River, and the natives, fur traders, explorers and others who came to the area, if only briefly.
Much of the content is dedicated to the Headwaters of the Missouri, where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers meet to form the Missouri River, only four miles northeast of Milwaukee Railroad Park.
Along the south end of the park are a series of nine plaques which cover an array of historical subjects. This, the eighth one, informs us of the story of the European nations which had vied for supremacy in what was to become the American West.
The Missouri River and its drainage were key elements in European conflicts.
EUROPEAN INTEREST IN THE MISSOURI
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and Spain competed in the search for a water route across North America. Explorers such as DeSoto, La Salle and de la Verendrye believed that the Mississippi-Missouri was the fabled Northwest Passage to the wealthy Orient. By 1760, the French had penetrated farther up the Missouri than any other nation, but England emerged from the French and Indian Wars as the strongest power on the continent. With the birth of the United States in 1776, a fourth nation entered the contest for domination of the western lands. The power struggle continued for another 25 years, with the United States siding with first one European nation, then another. In the end, the desire of France to limit England's power made possible the purchase of the western territory by the United States.