Welcome to the Fairview  Montana Picture Tour

Shooting pictures in Fairview Montana on  June 2011 was a challenge.  The town was a constant blur of semi-truck traffic, pedestrians, and pick-up trucks. The 2010 Census said there were only 840 residents but the activity in town looked more like a Fourth Of July Parade and Rodeo in Ennis, Montana.  What we were witnessing was the frenetic race for oil during the Bakken Oil Boom (2006-2015).  While attempting to shoot a series of nine or more pictures to create a panorama of Ellery Avenue in Fairview I was constantly being interrupted by a line of passing semi-trucks hauling equipment and material to nearby drilling rigs. To this day, I wish I captured the bustling scene on video. I just assumed all the activity would continue.

Fast Forward to 2017

We returned to Fairview in September 2017 and was shocked to find a peaceful and sleepy Eastern Montana town.  Instead of a solid line of traffic we only saw an occasional vehicle with a local license plate beginning with the number 27 pass by. Forbes Magazine reports the area witnessed a small rebound in 2017  You can bet we will have the video cameras ready if another Boom takes off again. What we stumbled across in on that hot June day in 2011, was simply unbelievable.

 Snowden Lift Bridge

The Snowden Bridge is the only vertical lift bridge in Montana. Built in 1913, the bridge spans the Missouri River between Roosevelt and Richland Counties in Eastern Montana. The vertical lift span was required by the War Department to accommodate possible steamboat river traffic.  A three-cylinder kerosene engine in the lift house could raise the span 43 feet in about thirty minutes. In theory, the movable span might also be lifted by a hand-turned capstan. As the Missouri River Steamboat industry faded into history the Snowden Bridge became a stationary Railroad Bridge. The span was last raised in 1935 and the lift machinery removed in 1943.