History of Taft

Long before Taft was an exit along Interstate 90, it was a bustling railroad town tucked into the mountains of western Montana.

Taft sprang to life in the early 1900s as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad—better known as the Milwaukee Road—pushed its line through the Bitterroot Mountains toward the Pacific Northwest. Thousands of workers, railroad crews, merchants, and travelers passed through the area while the massive St. Paul Pass Tunnel was being constructed. By the height of the railroad boom, Taft had grown into a community of more than 2,000 people.

For a town that existed for only a few years, Taft was remarkably busy. Along its short stretch of railroad were saloons, hotels, restaurants, shops, a hospital, theaters, and a Trading Post serving the people who lived and worked in this rugged mountain camp.

Taft quickly earned a reputation as one of the wildest railroad towns in the American West. Its population was made up largely of railroad and construction workers, along with miners, loggers, merchants, and people drawn to the opportunities created by the railroad. The town's colorful reputation became part of Montana folklore, but beneath the stories was a community built around hard work, commerce, and one of the greatest railroad engineering projects of its era.

The town's name is generally associated with William Howard Taft, who was Secretary of War at the time and would become President of the United States in 1909. Stories surrounding his visit to the railroad camp helped give Taft its memorable name.

Taft's story came to a sudden end in August 1910. The devastating fires known as the Great Fire of 1910, or the Big Burn, swept through western Montana and northern Idaho. On August 21, the fire reached Taft and destroyed nearly the entire town. The U.S. Forest Service notes that only one major building, the Taft Hotel, survived the fire.

The railroad moved on, the workers left, and Taft was never rebuilt as the town it once had been. Eventually, the remains of the old community disappeared beneath the changing landscape and, later, the construction of Interstate 90.

But Taft was never completely forgotten.

Today, the name lives on at Taft Exit 5 and in the historic railroad corridor that leads toward the Route of the Hiawatha. The long St. Paul Pass Tunnel that helped create Taft is still part of the story of the region and stands as a reminder of the enormous effort that brought the railroad through these mountains more than a century ago.

A Store in the Heart of the Story

The Taft Trading Post name pays tribute to the merchants and small businesses that once served this remarkable railroad town.

In a place where thousands of people came together during one brief chapter of Montana history, a general store was more than a place to buy supplies. It was part of the fabric of the community—a place connected to the everyday lives of workers, travelers, families, and the people who helped build the railroad through the mountains.

Taft may have disappeared, but its story remains.

Welcome to the Taft Trading post, a nod to the people, places, and enduring spirit of an old Montana town.