Taft is a populated place in

Mineral County, Montana Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,535. Its county seat is Superior, Montana, Superior. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau ...

. Located in the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

near the

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

border along the route of the

Mullan Road Mullan Road was the first covered wagon, wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland Empire (Pacific Northwest), Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by United States Army, U.S. Army troops under the command of Lt. John Mullan ( ...

, it was a thriving

railroad town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

c. 1908, named after

William H. Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

(shortly before he was elected

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

). It is said in both ''Up the Swiftwater'' by Sandra A. Crowell and David O. Asleson, and in ''The Big Burn'' by

Timothy Egan Timothy P. Egan (born November 8, 1954) is an American author, journalist, and former op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. Egan has written ten books. Egan, a third-generation Westerner, lives in Seattle. His first book, ''The Good Rain ...

, that the unnamed work camp got its name after Taft, then

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

, traveling on a

Northern Pacific Northern Pacific may refer to: * Northern Pacific Airways, an upcoming airline * Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference, an NCAA Division I conference * Northern Pacific Hockey League, an American Tier III junior ice hockey league * Northern Paci ...

train, berated the town as a blight on the American landscape which must clean up its act, to a cheering drunken crowd. The town was then enthusiastically named in his honor.

History

The

boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although t ...

was founded when the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("The Milwaukee Road") built its

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (proof theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that ...

(1906–1909) and had to bore a tunnel through the mountains near its site.Description of Taft in 1939
from MTlinks.com Tunnel #20 on the railroad, it is known as St. Paul Pass Tunnel or Taft Tunnel; its East Portal is southwest at approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

and heads southwest into Idaho. In its earliest years, the town consisted mostly of men working for the railroad, mining, or forest industries. It was notorious for drinking, gambling, a murder rate higher than Chicago, and a reputed "five prostitutes for every man." One reporter described it as "the wickedest city in America." Taft burned to the ground on 21 August 1910, during " The Big Burn" - a giant forest wildfire fed by

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

r winds, and was not rebuilt. (see ''The Big Burn'' by Timothy Egan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2009.)

Today

Today, on

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

, the site is noted by exit 5, marked "Taft." The area hosts a maintenance yard for the

Montana Department of Transportation The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Montana, responsible for numerous programs related to the construction, maintenance, and monitoring of Montana's transportation infrastructure and oper ...

, access to the Route of the ''Hiawatha''

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

, and access to St. Regis (Sohon) /

Mullan Pass Mullan Pass is a mountain pass in the western United States, in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. It sits on the Continental Divide on the border between Powell and Lewis and Clark counties at above sea level. Located in the Helena National Fores ...

vía Randolph Creek Road, which heads north and west from I-90.

References

External links

"Gamblers, Wastrels and Lumberjacks: An Old Cemetery Gives Up Its Secret History; An estimated 72 people died during construction of a rail tunnel through the Montana mountains. After more than 100 years, their final resting place has been found," by Bill Morlin, ''New York Times'', December 15, 2019
{{Authority control Ghost towns in Montana Geography of Mineral County, Montana Great Fire of 1910