Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
The Railroad In Almont
by Warren Hoovestal
The Northern
Pacific Railroad came to Bismarck before the year 1882. The rails were
laid on the ice during the winter to ship the materials across for the
building at Bismarck of the Missouri River bridge. The railroad came
through Sims and Almont in the year 1882. The grade was made with two-horse
scrapers, horses, and wheelbarrows. Much hard hand labor was necessary
for the completion of the railroad as there were many long hard days
for the ones working on the first crew.
As the grade slowly kept moving on, they followed
pretty close along the river bottoms so they wouldn’t have to do so
much cutting and filling. When they did have to make a fill, they made a
timber construction and then filled in the dirt over that because they thought
it would save time and be much easier that way.
When they came to the Rattlesnake Cut, there
was very much work connected with it. The men used horses, scrapers, wheelbarrows,
and shovels, but the main piece of machinery used was the steamshovel that
they had our there. that would cut the dirt loose and the men with the shovels
would load it into the flat cars with small sides on, and they would use
the engines with a cable to unload the dirt. While either coupling up or
disconnecting a car a young man from Sims was killed.
The big cut east of Almont was named Rattlesnake
Cut because of the whole dens of rattlesnakes there when it wa being built.
The workers had to be careful not to be bitten by the snakes. They put dynamite
in the dens and blew up the snakes, killing the little ones, which helped
considerably. The curve following the cut was called the Rattlesnake Curve
because it was the sharpest curve between Minneapolis and the Pacific Ocean.
The first trains that chugged across the tracks
compared with the ones of today were very small but in those days people
thought it was a great accomplishment. the engines didn’t have much
power and another is that people never dreamed of the long trains they have
today. the engineer had an easy job compared with the fireman because all
he had to do was control the train and watch the instruments, but the fireman
had to shovel coal continually into the fire box. He would very easily catch
cold from being in the hot cab and then going out into the cold to get the
coal.
The first signals were flares and had to be
lit by hand every evening. During the week days when the section crew was
out on the job they lit the flares before they went back to Sims for the
night. On Sundays a man would walk from Sims to Almont to light the flares.
They would get time and a half for Sunday work. When the Section Crew was
working on the North side of Rattlesnake Cut a man would stand on top of
the cut and signal for the crew to get of the track when the train was coming.
That was before they had a good organized time schedule. When they got the
electric signals it was a very great improvement over the flares.
As time went on the little town of Almont
started up. It was in 1906 that it actually got started. Mr. e. W. Hyde
was actually the first man to start the town. The town grew up very rapidly
and when the brick yard and coal mine in Sims declined, the whole town of
Sims declined with it and Almont took the place of Sims. There was a brakeman
working on the railroad named Mr. Atkinson. He posted posters all along
the railroad which said “Watch Almont Grow.”
Almont was a prosperous looking town and was
doing very well. A little ways south east of Almont the even built what
is now called the two dams. These two dams were built to protect the railroad
grade from being washed out by the creek. Many people, even myself, from
around Almont can remember when the whole town would shake because of the
trains going through. Many people say the reason for this is that Almont
really is sitting on quicksand.
As time went on and the engines were being
improved, they would travel faster. Some of the old locomotives were replaced
by these vary fast diesels. then Rattlesnake Cut became more of a hazard
for the Northern Pacific Railroad company, because these fast trains would
have to slow down so much for the curve. Officials were sent out from Minneapolis
to look over the situation. “I can see where the railroad will have
to be taken out of Almont said one of them.
“Yes,” added another. “It
will take quite a bit of work to make this sharp curve into a gradual turn
and therefore we can just as well build on a whole new grade across from
New Salem to Glen Ullin.”
Before this happened, rumors were being spread
around thick and fast about the railroad being taken out of Almont. I can
remember hearing a conversation between my dad and Mr. B. T. Olson who worked
on the section at that time.
“Well Beas, do you think the railroad
will be taken out?” said Axel
“No.” replied Beas, “The
railroad will never be taken out of Almont.”
“O, I wouldn’t know about that.” said
Axel.
“Now those rumors will never amount
to anything!” exclaimed Beas.
Those are just some of the different opinions
between different people in regard to the railroad situation.
As the rumors were getting stronger the people
were becoming more and more concerned about the losing of the railroad.
For every suggestion the officials made in favor of taking out the railroad,
Almont’s leading people backed by all the people of Almont and all
the people from around Almont opposed each suggestion bitterly and gave
a good reason for the preservation of the railroad in Almont. The question
became bigger and was talked about all through and around Almont. Will the
railroad through Almont be taken out or not? that was the big question and
by this time many people were in doubt about it.
Through much studying and figuring the Northern
Pacific Railroad Company definitely decided to take the railroad out of
Almont. Work on the new grade was started immediately.
“Come on men, keep busy,” shouted
the foreman of the building crew, as he bossed the men who were building
the new grade very rapidly.
In the year 1947 they started taking up the railroad that ran through
Almont.
“I sure hate to see the railroad taken
out.” said one farmer.
“So do I,” said another, “because now I will have to haul
my grain to North Almont or New salem.”
It hurt the farmers quite a bit, the same
as it did to the other people of Almont.
“Now that the railroad will soon be
gone I think Almont will die out because as farmers haul their products
to New Salem they will do their shopping up there too.” said one person.
“No,” said another,”because
it isn’t every day the farmers will go to New Salem and think of all
the people in Almont who will do shopping there.”
In spite of the railroad being taken out of Almont, it struggled on
and today is prosperous little town.
Many people did think it would die. They thought
the site called North Almont, which is nine miles north of Almont, would
take its place.
When the railroad was taken out something had to be done about the elevators.
It was decided that they would be moved to North Almont. While they
were moving them, one of them blew over in a very high wind which came
up during the night. The elevator had been parked there the night before.
The depot was also moved to North Almont.
Today Almont lives just as good and peaceful
as ever. It isn’t too bad for the farmers because with the graded
and graveled roads and the new motor trucks, it doesn’t take too much
longer to drive those extra nine miles. Grocery trucks haul the groceries
into Almont and Ed Reeff hauls the mail in from North Almont.
The ties from the old grade were bought up
by a Texas company and resold to farmers.
Today the trains whistle through North Almont
and do not bother Almont which lies peacefully in the valley.