Near the south end of town at Callahan Creek, the museum is housed in Troy's one time Great Northern Railway depot. Among other things, one will find a rock drill, a walk behind, horse drawn cultivator, an old Farmall tractor, a Great Northern caboose and other artefacts scattered about. The building itself was moved onto the museum property some time after it ceased to be used as a railway depot by the Great Northern.
On the north side of the building are a pair of historical markers, giving the visitor a glimpse into a bit of the history of Troy and of the fauna of the area.
This marker apprises the visitor of some of the nitty gritty details of, primarily, the goings on during the mining period, between 1884 and 1930. It finishes with some of the details of the logging era, which began as the mining era ended.
Callahan Creek Historic Mining and Logging District
Callahan Creek Historic Mining and Logging District represents a time span ranging between 1884 and 1930. It includes both mining and early logging. To assist in the removal of ore and logs, a narrow gauge railroad (36 inches) was constructed which eventually reached a distance of approximately 12.7 miles from the town of Troy, Montana. This railroad was in use between 1916 and 1929. The narrow gauge railroad often called the "Mountain Railroad" is unique in northwestern Montana. It is even more unique when you consider that it hauled both ore and logs at the same time.
Records show that by 1922, 5 1/2 years after it was constructed, the railroad had moved 282,000 tons of ore. When the concentrator was destroyed by fire in 1927 it was estimated that over 500,000 tons of ore had been shipped over this rail line to Troy.
The historic mining associated with this district included prospecting, ore extraction, ore transportation by narrow gauge railroad and ore milling. In 1916, a concentrator was constructed in Troy, Montana to dress the ore from the mine. At its peak, three different mining companies were shipping ore to the concentrator using the narrow gauge railroad line. Mine names that are still familiar to the area include the Snowstorm, Big Eight and Montana Morning.
Between May 1917 [and] January 1919 over 19,000,000 pounds of lead, 2,000,000 pounds of zinc, 322,500 ounces of silver and 2,000 ounces of gold were produced from the ore removed from the Callahan drainage.
In 1920 the Forest Service awarded a timber sale contract located upstream from the mine. It took seven years to accomplish the task. The sale was logged using horses and log chutes to move logs from the stump to the landing. Log transportation was accomplished by extending the narrow gauge railroad to the sale area, and moving the logs over the rail line.
From the Historical Marker