Montana Union Station Mural - Anaconda, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 46° 07.889 W 112° 57.135
12T E 349192 N 5110508
This is one of two former railway depots left standing in Anaconda, located just north of Front Street on Main Street. Appropriately, it contains a railroad oriented mural.
Waymark Code: WMMMDX
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 10/08/2014
Views: 4
On the Main Street end of this turn of the century railway station, now hardware store, is an old stone arch, within which is a beautiful mural of an old steam locomotive. The engine appears to be engine #55, probably a Butte, Anaconda & Pacific engine of old. The mural was done in 2009 by Roger R. Wyant.
Ostensibly built by the Montana Union Railway, this station would have to have been built before the turn of the century. The railway was organized on June 28, 1886 as a joint company of Northern Pacific and Union Pacific. This small nine mile long section of track, known as the Stuart Section, branched off the main line at Stuart, 9.8 miles east of Anaconda. It was a three track line, with both narrow and standard gauge track. The entire Montana Union Railway was very profitable, hauling material, ore, metals and supplies both to and from the mines and smelters in the Butte area.
On May 1, 1898 the Anaconda Copper Mining Company's subsidiary railway, the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific, leased the Stuart section from the Montana Union Railway, connecting it with their own rail line leading from Stuart to Butte.
Passenger service was begun on this section from Anaconda to Butte immediately after the tracks reached Anaconda and continued until discontinuation by the BA&P in 1955, at which time this station may have been used to ship and receive freight for some time. For some time now the station has been a hardware store, restored and refurbished, yet still possessed of its general appearance as a railway station.
