Havre Beneath the Streets - Havre, Montana

Havre, Montana, the Great Northern Railway (later to be named the Burlington Northern Railroad,) which ran the more than 1,700 miles between Seattle, Washington and St. Paul, Minnesota, with branches running north to North Dakota, Montana and the Canadian border, as well as Wisconsin, eventually covering over 8,000 track miles, was instrumental in the development of many towns – some of which became cities, and others which simply faded away.

Havre, Montana is one of those towns that came into being as the result of The Great Northern Railway’s founding of the sites ideal location – midway between Seattle and St. Paul – as a key railroad service center.

A curious tourist attraction, “Havre Beneath the Streets” was originally a series of buildings constructed to house railroad employees. The flimsy wooden shacks were eventually destroyed by fire, and the occupants had little choice but to use the steam tunnels built beneath the buildings as temporary shelters More tunnels were dug to connect the basement abodes to one another, creating a warren of underground housing.

Eventually the shacks were rebuilt, but the railroad decided to keep its Chinese track layers housed in the underground “city.” Now a small tourist attraction, one can visit the site and view the remnants of what once served as a sort of Chinese Laundromat, a brothel with several small rusting iron beds, and three opium dens.

“Havre Beneath the Streets is located at 120 Third Avenue on the west side of town, on the corner of First Street (US 2) and Third Avenue. The attraction – a fine example of early Montana history - is open daily, seven days a week, but closed on Sundays during the wintertime. Summer hours are 9am to 5pm. Winter hours are noon to 5pm. Tel: 406-265-8888. Admission is $6/adults - $5/seniors - $4/children 6-12. Special tours arranged at $4/per person. School groups and 4-H Clubs, $3/per person. Entrance fees include admission to the Railroad Museum as well, which is in the same location.

The Railroad Museum offers a fascinating look at more than a century of railroad history, including artifacts such as an 19th century conductors uniform, an impressive H.O. Scale railroad system and hundreds of other railroad related items. A visit to the railroad museum without the underground city tour is free. Donations are welcome.

Located just behind the Holiday Village shopping mall in Le Havre is the Wahkpa Chu’gn buffalo jump, offering a well-preserved glimpse of a bluff used by the region’s Native American hunters to trap and kill buffalo by driving the herds over the sheer cliffs, where they were killed and then stripped for their meat and hides.

The thousands of years old area is an archeological site, and a fun place to search for small fossil remnants scattered among the limestone sediment at the bottom of the bluff, such as the sea shells that originated in ancient seas, and petrified wood possibly dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. All-in-all, Havre, Montana offers a unique glimpse into the near and distant past. 

120 3rd Avenue
Havre, MT 59501
Phone: 406-265-8888