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[quote user="erikem"][quote user="MichaelSol"] Cadotte Pass is about five miles north of Rogers Pass on the Continental Divide. It was the historic crossing of the Divide in the area. The old Pacific Railroad surveys all included it as a probable crossing and when one of the surveyors, Isaac Stevens, came back later as Governor of the Washington Territory, he proclaimed the creation of the Washington Territory as he stood on its eastern boundary and looked west from Cadotte Pass. [/quote] The USGS maps show Cadotte Pass to be 2 miles NNW of Rogers Pass (where highway 200 crosses the Continental Divide). It is at the upper right hand corner of the Cadotte Creek 7.5 minute Topo. Looks like Cadotte Pass would not have been practical without some sort of tunnel - my eyeballing the topo suggests that a 3 to3.5 mile tunnel would have allowed for crossing the divide with a maximum elevation of 5,000 feet and mild grades. A much shorter tunnel would have been possible with steeper grades and/or a lot of curvature. Coupled with a 5 mile tunnel under St Paul Pass, this would have made for a nice low grade crossing of Montana. Would have been interesting to know if the Milwaukee was planning to electrify the Cadotte Pass line if it had been built - and a long tunnel under the pass would have been easier with electricity rather than steam. A related question is whether it would have made sense to extend the electrification on the line between Melstone and Harlowton - perhaps extending it to the division point of Miles City? [/quote] An interesting blurb from "Montana Discovery Foundation": <A href="http://www.montanadiscoveryfoundation.org/alicecreek.html">http://www.montanadiscoveryfoundation.org/alicecreek.html</A> "Governor Stevens favored the proposed railroad route that passed though the Blackfoot Valley. In determining whether the rails should cross over Cadotte's or Lewis and Clark Pass, Stevens noted that Lewis and Clark Pass would require the construction of an underground tunnel that would extend only 2.5 miles, whereas the Cadotte Pass route would require a tunnel 4.25 miles in length." Perhaps the Milwaukee's collective thought was that the Cadotte route would be straighter, e.g. more inline with the Blackfoot River to the west and the Dearborn River to the east.  My recollection from the locked Milwaukee thread was that a 2 mile tunnel under Cadotte was envisioned.  But what I am wondering about is if the Augusta branch farther north was supposed to be the eastern approach, or if the Milwaukee was considering a new line from Great Falls up the Missouri to the confluence of the Dearborn River, then up the valley of the Dearborn to Cadotte?
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