At 20.6 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is FORTINE, 0.6 m. (2,955 alt., 100 pop.), one of those flag stops whose inhabitants gather on the station platform to watch the trains pass, then retire to the post office to gossip and await the distribution of letters and papers.
Montana: A State Guide Book, 1939
Begun as a station on the Great Northern Rail line, Fortine received a post office in 1905. The community was named for an early settler, Octave Fortine.
A census-designated place, Fortine is unincorporated and really not substantially changed in size from the 1930s. There are some newer houses, particularly along Meadow Creek Road, which serves as the main street, and a new post office has replaced the original 1905 post office. They have traded their long gone railway station for a new fire hall, which stands along the west side of Highway 93. As of 2000 its population was listed as 169.
Fortine Montana Dot Com lists the population as 1,023 in 2004, but most of the populace must have been out of town when we visited, as they weren't readily apparent.
The town survives on forestry and a small amount of agriculture. A large sawmill nearby was closed in 2009, resulting in a loss of 74 jobs.
Image below is an Antique shop on Meadow Creek Road.