Commerce and Communities
Commerce and transportation go hand-in-hand. "Empire Builder" James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway, knew this was true and from the railroad's inception, worked hard to promote commerce along his line.
Hill believed farming was the key to filling his railroad cars with freight, but in actuality his schemes and partnerships with the mining and timber industries offered him much greater success. The rich Northwest timber reserves, in particular, added to the business of the line.
In 1900, Hill struck a deal with John O'Brien, a successful Minnesota lumberman, to build a sawmill on the north end of Flathead Lake. The two men agreed that the vast forests surrounding Flathead Lake would supply the mill with enough timber to produce 600,000 railroad ties a year for the expanding Great Northern line. In addition, the sawmill produced other lumber products, which were then hauled by the Great Northern via the new eleven-mile spur line that connected O'Brien's mill to the main line in Kalispell.
A New Town is Born
With a completed connector line and a fully operational sawmill, the new community of Somers was born in October 1901. For half a century the mill used millions of board feet of timber to produce railroad ties as well as lumber for flooring, moulding and siding, all of which were hauled away on the tracks of the Great Northern. The sawmill closed its doors in 1948 and the spur line has long since been ripped out, but the legacy of the "Empire Builder" lives on in the buildings and memories of modern Somers.
A Pathway to the Past
Enjoy reliving the past as you travel along the old spur line from Somers to Kalispell. This once busy railroad line left the docks at Flathead Lake and travelled the eleven miles up to Kalispell, hauling wood products and people along its rails.
From the Sign