Montana: Stories of the Land

Chapter 9 - Railroads Link Montana to the Nation, 1881 -1915

Educational Trunks

East Meets West: The Chinese Experience in Montana from the Montana Historical Society. This trunk explores the lives of the Chinese who came to Montana, the customs that they brought with them to America, how they contributed to Montana communities, and why they left.

Websites and Online Lesson Plans

The Montana Historical Society has created a lesson plan, "Railroads Transform Montana," to complement Chapter 9. The lesson - which includes a PowerPoint presentation - emphasizes the how trains affected the social, economic, and physical landscape of Montana.

These websites provide information on the history of the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Milwaukee Road.

The Washington State Historical Society created a website (with relevant lesson plans) to accompany the book The West the Railroads Made. 

The Bureau of Land Management has created lesson plans focused on railroading technology. Among other things, they explain how steam engines actually worked.

The American Memory Project has put up maps that document the Indian Land Cessions from 1784-1894 (U.S. Serial Set 4015). You can browse by tribe or by state/territory.

There are a number of good lesson plans on the transcontinental railroad (which did not pass through Montana) that touch on themes relevant to Montana. These include "I Hear the Locomotives: The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad"; the Newberry Library's Historical Maps in the K-12 Classrooms lesson plans for Map 11, the PBS's lesson plan "The Transcontinental Railroad," created to accompany episode five of its eight-part documentary, The West; and the PBS lesson plan created to accompany the American Experience documentary, The Transcontinental Railroad. 

The lesson plan "An Economic Mystery: What Happened to the Railroads?" asks students to look at the economics of railroading as they investigate the reasons rail companies experienced a crisis in the 1960s and what helped the freight transport portion of the business return to profitability later in the same century.

The online Smithsonian exhibit, "America on the Move" examines many of the themes discussed in this chapter on a national level. See also the accompanying videos.

Montana: The Magazine of Western History created discussion guides for articles in its winter 1999 transportation issue, including "The Steamboat and Stagecoach Era in Montana and the Northwest," by Carlos Schwantes and "Something of a Nuisance Value: The Montana, Wyoming, and Southern Railroad," by Jon Axline. They also posted the text (but not the pictures) of the articles in this issue online. 

Operation Lifesaver has lesson plans and information geared at improving safety around railroad tracks.

The University of Montana Special Collections Library has created an online exhibit: Immigrant Montana.

Videos or DVDs

From the Far East to the Old West: Chinese and Japanese Settlers in Montana, Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs - 29 minutes. Check your library. Copies of the video and study guide were distributed free of charge to all Montana public schools.

"The Grandest Enterprise under God," Episode 5 of the PBS series The West - 84 minutes. (Note: This focuses on the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which did NOT pass through Montana.)

American Experience: Transcontinental Railroad - 80 minutes. (Again: this film is NOT specific to Montana.)

Magic Yellowstone: Historic 1920's Motion Picture on Yellowstone - 30 minutes.

Possible Fieldtrips

Chief Plenty Coups National Historic Landmark State Park, Pryor.  (Related IEFA lesson plans are available.)

The Logging Railroad Tour at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula

Alignment to Content Standards and Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians (EU)

Tests and Answer Keys