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Livingston, Montana was established, courtesy of the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., in December, 1882.
For a refinanced, land-grant railroad company which had been stalled by bankruptcy in North Dakota for ten years, choosing a town site on the Great Bend of the Yellowstone River was a smart move. The location was midway on the St. Paul, Minnesota to Tacoma, Washington line and, although it"s doubtful railroad executives were aware of it, the place had been an important trail nexus for some 10,000 years.
To the north lay the fertile Shields River valley and to the east, the far reaching plains portion of the Yellowstone River valley. Both would become agricultural mainstays. Mountain passes enabled access to the west and to the south, Upper Yellowstone's Paradise Valley provided gold, silver, coal, and timber. Beyond Paradise lay Yellowstone National Park. The Northern Pacific Railroad would become a major player in popularizing the wonderland and Livingston, would become host to many of the nation's notables.
From its beginnings, Livingston was well planned with a built-in aura of respectability. Although its early years didn't' entirely escape the boom and bust roughness of a frontier town, construction of the Northern Pacific's running repair shops and brick business buildings along Park Street left no doubt Livingston was to be a town of permanence. By 1887, the town gave legitimacy to the creation of Park County. At the time, the county included today's Sweet Grass and Carbon counties. Livingston, vying with Big Timber and the somewhat overstated boosters of Springdale, was selected as the seat of local government.
On the threshold of the 20th century, Livingston became what it was intended to be - a transportation oriented city, a gateway to Yellowstone National Park, and unmistakably a railroad town. The Livingston Depot complex was completed in 1902 and Northern Pacific's repair and maintenance shops became Livingston's primary work place. By the 1950s over 1100 workers were employed at the shops and Livingston's population peaked. During the next 30 years, the town's robust railroad economy began to fade. As automobiles and interstate highways overtook the reliance on rail travel, passenger service slipped from four trains a day to Amtrak to none.
As Livingston's traditional railroad economy declined, tourism, recreation, agri-business and real estate economies expanded. The most enduring feature of the town, however, is its place on the Big Bend of the Yellowstone River and the outdoor ethic which has historically sustained it.
