Bozeman Depot is a former

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...

in Bozeman, Montana, opened in 1883 by the Northern Pacific Railway. The current brick station house was built in 1892 and expanded in 1924. Passenger rail service to Bozeman ended in 1979 when budget cuts forced

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

to discontinue the ''

North Coast Hiawatha The ''North Coast Hiawatha'' was a streamlined passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Operating from 1971 to 1979, the train was a successor to the Northern Pacific Railway's ''North Coast Limited ...

''. Since then, various proposals have been raised for restoration of train service or

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

of the depot building. The depot was also the northern terminus of the city's electric

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

system, the Bozeman Street Railway, which existed from 1892 to 1921.

History

The first railroad depot in Bozeman opened in 1883 when the

transcontinental Transcontinental may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel'' * TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...

main line of the Northern Pacific Railway reached the city. In 1891 a cinder from a passing steam locomotive ignited the wood depot building, causing severe fire damage. The city decided to rebuild at a grander scale since Bozeman was then competing to become the state capital of Montana. Completed in 1892, the new depot featured brick construction and Romanesque elements such as a large central

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

. On July 27, 1892, the Bozeman Street Railway began operating hydroelectric-powered trolleys on a route from Bozeman Depot to the corner of Main Street and Grand Avenue. Two extensions brought the system to in length by 1901, connecting to

Montana State College Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 fiel ...

at Montana Hall. Amid growing competition from automobiles, the system closed on December 15, 1921, when a snowstorm damaged the last trolley car. In 1900 Northern Pacific inaugurated the ''

North Coast Limited The ''North Coast Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago and Seattle via Bismarck, North Dakota. It started on April 29, 1900, and continued as a Burlington Northern Railroad train after t ...

'', an express train between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and both

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

that stopped at Bozeman Depot. The ''Alaskan'' ran over the same route but on a slower schedule, making more stops. In 1952 the ''Alaskan'' was replaced by the ''

Mainstreeter The ''Mainstreeter'' was a passenger train on the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago, Illinois, and the Pacific Northwest from 1952 to 1971. When the ''North Coast Limited'' got a faster schedule in November 1952 the Mainstreeter was introdu ...

''. A major expansion and renovation of the depot occurred in 1923–1924, when a wing was added to the southeastern side in order to accommodate increased passenger traffic. Taking Prairie School influences, the central turret was also removed and the entire façade was clad in red brick. In 1970 the Northern Pacific merged with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, and the

Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank of ...

, forming the facility's new owner, the Burlington Northern Railroad.

took over most inter-city passenger rail in the United States on May 1, 1971, including the Burlington Northern routes. The ''North Coast Limited'' and ''Mainstreeter'' were discontinued. Bozeman was left with no train service until pressure led by Senator

Mike Mansfield Michael Joseph Mansfield (March 16, 1903 – October 5, 2001) was an American politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. representative (1943–1953) and a U.S. senator (1953–1977) from Montana. He was the longest-serving Sen ...

resulted in Amtrak launching the ''

'' in June.

End of passenger service

In October 1979 Amtrak discontinued the ''North Coast Hiawatha'' due to budget cuts, severing Bozeman and all of southern Montana from the national rail network. This left the ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

'' as the only passenger rail service in the state, running on the former main line of the Great Northern Railway. Since then, Bozeman Depot has been closed to the public and used primarily for storage. In 1987 Montana Rail Link leased the line and adjacent facilities, including Bozeman Depot, from Burlington Northern. In 1996 the Burlington Northern Railroad was merged with the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

to form the BNSF Railway. In 2022 Montana Rail Link agreed to end its lease with BNSF, pending regulatory approval. This would make BNSF the direct owner of the depot building. In summer 1991 the trackside exterior of the depot was a filming location for ''A River Runs Through It'', standing in for Missoula Depot. The film premiered in Bozeman.

Proposed future

Bozeman_Depot,_4_May_2022_-_northeast_face

Many proposals have been made over the years for reuse of the depot, including as a microbrewery, restaurant, bar, library, community center, office, or martial arts studio. In 2013 stakeholders completed a structural analysis of the building as a first-step toward a potential renovation. In 2000 a pub, Montana Ale Works, opened in the old Northern Pacific freight depot nearby, but the passenger depot remains dormant. In 2020 a group of Montana counties formed the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority with the goal of restoring service in southern Montana through Bozeman. In 2021 the authority played a role in securing language in the

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and originally in the House as the INVEST in America ActH.R. 3684, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress ...

requiring

USDOT The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

to study restoration of the ''North Coast Hiawatha''. The study must be completed by 2023.

References

External links

Bozeman, Montana – TrainWeb
{{Amtrak Montana stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1883 Railway stations closed in 1979 Former Northern Pacific Railway stations Former Amtrak stations in Montana Buildings and structures in Bozeman, Montana 1883 establishments in Montana Territory 1892 establishments in Montana Tram stops Prairie School architecture in Montana