Deer Lodge was the division headquarters for the Milwaukee Road (MILW), officially known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, until their demise in 1980. Here, the MILW was electrified until June 15, 1974, when the conversion to diesel-electric locomotives retired all the line's electric locomotives. At one time Deer Lodge was the site of large railroad yards, shops and a roundhouse. The roadbed and many of the bridges are still intact across Montana, with BNSF trains passing by daily during the week.
On what was known as the
Pacific Extension, which extended the MILW lines in the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean, this station would have been built about 1907 or 1908. The 2,300 mile long extension was built in 1906-1909. One of the premiere passenger trains ever to run on this continent, the
Olympian Hiawatha, stopped here until it was discontinued in May of 1961, ostensibly for lack of passenger traffic. It turned out that ridership was still showing respectable numbers, but the train was unprofitable nonetheless. Replacement trains continued to make Deer Lodge a stop until 1964, when the western terminus of passenger service was pulled back to Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Though we can't say what, or who, occupied the station in the interim, it is today home to the Community Evangelical Free Church.
Here in Deer Lodge you can actually see what used to run by. About half a mile south on Main Street is an outdoor museum of railway vehicles, with a couple of old MILW engines and a caboose on display.