n 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 seventh one, tells of the fur trade which began in the Missouri headwaters area not long after the return of Lewis and Clark, bringing with them stories of the large numbers of beaver to be found there.
The Headwaters drew many trappers because of its large beaver population.
FUR TRADE
Lewis and Clark had barely returned to the East when, spurred by their reports of vast numbers of beaver, Manuel Lisa formed the Missouri Fur Company. Recruiting several veterans of the Expedition-John Colter, George Drouillard, John Potts and Reuben Fields-along with other trappers, Lisa established a fur post on the Big Horn, and next, in 1810, at the Three Forks. His monopoly of the fur trade was destroyed by the War of 1812 and by Indian hostility. In the 1820's and 1830's, two other fur companies (Rocky Mountain and American) continued to trap in the Headwaters region employing men whose names were to become legendary: Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jim Beckwourth, Jedediah Smith. By the 1840's, however, the beaver in this area had been trapped to near extinction, and silk hats became more fashionable than fur; large-scale trapping at the Headwaters passed into history.