This image is the cover for the book Taming Big Sky Country, Transportation

Taming Big Sky Country, Transportation

Drives this breathtaking did not come easy. Cruising down Montana's scenic highways, it's easy to forget that traveling from here to there once was a genuine adventure. The state's major routes evolved from ancient Native American trails into four-lane expressways in a little over a century. That story is one of difficult, groundbreaking and sometimes poor engineering decisions, as well as a desire to make a journey faster, safer and more comfortable. It all started in 1860, when John Mullan hacked a wagon road over the formidable Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton. It continued until the last section of interstate highway opened to traffic in 1988. Montana Department of Transportation historian Jon Axline charts a road trip through the colorful and inspiring history of trails, roads and superhighways in Big Sky Country.

Jon Axline

Jon Axline has been the historian at the Montana Department of Transportation since 1990. When not sweating over the state's historic roads and bridges, he conducts cultural resource surveys and writes the MDT's roadside historical and geological interpretive markers. He is a regular contributor to Montana The Magazine of Western History and Montana Magazine. He is also author of Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges and editor of Montana's Historical Highway Markers.

The History Press