In 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 fourth one, tells of the most famous of all those who passed through the Missouri headwaters area, the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Milwaukee Railroad Park is just a half mile east of where the Lewis & Clark expedition passed on the Jefferson River, on their way to the Pacific. Given that Lewis & Clark were charged with exploring the possibilities of the Missouri's becoming a waterway to the Pacific, the headwaters area could well have marked the end of their journey. They did camp and rest in the area for several days, continuing southwest down the Jefferson River, passing near the present town of Three Forks. On the return trip, after Lewis and Clark separated, Clark and his party passed by Three Forks again.
Lewis and Clark explored the Missouri River in search of the "Northwest Passage."
LEWIS & CLARK ARRIVE AT THE HEADWATERS JULY 1805
"The object of your mission" wrote President Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark "is to explore the Missouri River and such principal streams of it . . . as may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent." Lewis and Clark, along with 32 other members of the expedition, camped on the banks of the Jefferson near here. Although they realized by then that the Missouri would not lead directly to the Pacific, they still considered it "an essential point" in the geography of North America. The Expedition rested here, exploring the surrounding area and noting the wide variety and abundance of game and plants. The following year, Clark and some members of the Expedition returned here on their way east.