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10. The Railroad Spur on Leighton Boulevard

There are few folks now living in Miles City who remember the railroad track that ran from the Northern Pacific Railroad west along Leighton Boulevard, then cut across -- just west of the old Milwaukee passenger depot -- and ended at the old Tongue River slough. The rails and ties were removed before the turn of the century, but the old grade was in evidence until after the advent of the Milwaukee with its attendant grown of the town. And why the railroad track? It was used to transport lumber from a sawmill on the bank of the old Slough. This sawmill was operated in the early 1880's by a man by the name of Lewis C. Currier, and a great deal of cottonwood lumber from which the early structures in Miles City were built was sawed right there within what is now the city limits of our fair city. This timber was cut up both the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers and floated down to the sawmill site.