Program

Historic Transportation

Subject

Site, Transportation

Location

322 Fort Missoula Rd, Missoula, MT 59804, USA

Lat/Long

46.842799, -114.062739

Grant Recipient

The Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula

In 1923, the Willamette Iron and Steel Works of Portland, Oregon built a Willamette locomotive for the Western Lumber Company. Established in 1898 by William A. Clark, the Western Lumber Company operated in Milltown, Montana, and shipped contracted logs to its mill by rail.

The Willamette locomotive was made of steel and equipped with an air brake, electric lights, and a coal burner. It was a geared steam locomotive, meaning that it used gears and a driveshaft to turn its wheels rather than pushing the wheels directly like a regular steam engine. This made it slow but gave it tremendous pulling power to go up steep hills with heavy loads of logs.

In 1928, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company acquired all the properties of the estate of William A. Clark, who had passed away in 1925. This included the entirety of the Western Lumber Company. The Willamette #7 was then put in use by the Lumber Department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. It was retired from regular service in the late 1940s but was kept on hand by the company.

In 1954, the Willamette #7 was brought out of storage and used during filming of scenes of Timberjack, a movie made by the Hollywood production company Republic Pictures. At the time of its 1955 release, Timberjack was described as a “thrilling Western” recalling a “rough and tumble story of the stirring days in early Montana logging” based on a novel of the same name by Dan Cushman (Whitefish Pilot, February 11, 1955, 7). The scenes using the Willamette #7 were filmed over five days in September and captured classic views of the locomotive pulling logs across a railroad trestle and traveling through the rugged terrain of Western Montana. The climax of the film included a dramatic fight scene where the Willamette #7 crashed through a barricade that was set up by a rival logging crew leading to a fight between the two crews.

After its brief stint as a Hollywood movie star, the old engine was once again retired. In the 1980s it was donated to the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula by Champion International, the successor company to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company Lumber Department. It remains on display in commemoration of the history of logging and the wood products industry of Western Montana.