Geraldine Milwaukee Depot

After touring the back roads of Montana for a day I checked into the Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton for the night (it's always a treat to stay in a hotel built in the early 1880's).  The following morning, being well rested and fed, I decided to take a little detour to the town of Geraldine before I headed back home.

There I found the historical Geraldine Milwaukee Depot.  It has been well preserved and looks much like it would have when it was built over a hundred years ago.

Quoted from the National Register sign located at the depot:

"The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway completed
its line across Montana in 1909 as soldiers began to
populate rural areas under the Homestead Act.  In
1913, a branch line stretching from Harlowton to Great
Falls was nearly finished.  Midway between Lewistown
and Great Falls, the brand-new town of Geraldine,
named for the wife of Milwaukee Railroad financier
William G. Rockefeller, anticipated a bright future.
The Geraldine Review reported that Milwaukee officials
planned to make the town 'the show place of the new
line.'  Workers put the finishing touches on the only
custom-built depot on the central branch and a gala
New Year’s Eve dance ushering in 1914 christened the
building.  Its hardwood maple floors were pronounced
'splendid.' The special design, described as 'a rustic
bungalow of the California pattern,' featured two
waiting rooms, a ticket room, freight room with scales
embedded in the floor, nickel-trimmed hot-blast
stoves, and a ventilating system that changed the air
every five minutes.  Geraldine was a busy stopover
serving two daily passenger trains and freight crews
until passenger service ended in 1965. All the other
depots were sold and, after the Milwaukee’s demise in
1980, salvage companies removed the rails from the
Great Falls-Geraldine section.  The nonprofit
Geraldine Historical Committee acquired the depot from
Central Montana Rail in 1995.  A model of expert
workmanship and quality materials with most original
details intact, the depot is still Geraldine’s
centerpiece and central to the town’s history."

Drop off your freight here.  I'm sure lots of milk and cream cans passed through this door.

Get your bill of lading for your freight here...

...and purchase your passenger tickets at this wicket.

A map of The Milwaukee Road train services.

All of the original wood is intact.  The maple floor really is 'splendid' (as mentioned in the quote).

Each mail box has two combination dials and a little window to see if anything is inside.

Everything you need...including farm machinery.

Money orders were the way to pay for many things in the day.

The original semaphore train signal.

The Geraldine Historical Committee has done a wonderful job of restoration on the depot.  This was well worth the detour on the way home.

Information courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, the United States Department of  Interior and the Montana Historical Society.

Photographed on April 19, 2018.