By Kasey Edge-Faur
Anaconda Weekly Review Editor
Tomorrow’s “Anaconda’s Past” presentation from the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Historic Conservation Board will appeal to road enthusiasts, history buffs, and generally curious citizens.
Jon Axline, a historian and cultural resources specialist with the Montana Department of Transportation, will be speaking about Montana’s first concrete paved highway, the old road between Butte and Anaconda, and its connection to the Yellowstone Trail (later US Highway 10 – South).
According to Axline, the trail was the country’s first interstate highway.
Paved in 1921, the road served heavy supply trucks and industrial traffic that needed a solid road that wouldn’t turn to mud.
“I’ll also be talking about a mystery bridge spanning the Clark Fork near Warm Springs on Perkins Lane,” Axline said. “This one has been a bit of a mystery in who built it and where it came from.”
Axline graduated from Montana State University with an MA in American history. He’s published a number of articles and books on a variety of Montana history subjects ranging from dinosaurs, historic bridges, to cold war sky watchers, and, most recently, a flying saucer film.
He is the recipient of the Montana Historical Society’s Heritage Guardian Award in 2025 and its Vivian A. Paladin Award for his article in “Montana The Magazine of Western History” in 2026.
Axline’s presentation, “Roads and Bridges” will start at 12 p.m. Thursday at the Forge Hotel.
