James J. Hill and the Route That Made Whitefish
Near Whitefish, Montana
The railroad that created Whitefish was built by James J. Hill, one of the most driven men in American business history. Hill was a Canadian-born entrepreneur who became the dominant railroad builder of the northern United States in the late nineteenth century.
His Great Northern Railway crossed the Rocky Mountains in the early eighteen nineties via Marias Pass in northern Montana, at just over five thousand feet the lowest rail crossing of the Continental Divide in the United States north of New Mexico. The Great Northern ran west through the Flathead Valley to the Pacific. When Hill's engineers rerouted the western Montana division in nineteen oh four to avoid steep grades over Haskell Pass between Kalispell and Libby, they chose a longer but gentler route that ran north and west through the future site of Whitefish.
That engineering decision, made in an office, planted the town. Hill was a deliberate promoter of tourism along his railroad. He worked with the federal government to support protection of the Glacier region, and when Glacier National Park was created in nineteen ten, the Great Northern was ready to bring visitors there.
The railroad built a series of Swiss-style chalet lodges in and around the park. When it commissioned the Whitefish depot in nineteen twenty seven, the architect designed it in a Tudor Revival style meant to complement the Swiss chalet lodges to the east. The railroad, the park, and the depot were designed to feel like a single destination, and Whitefish was the train stop where you arrived for all of them.
