The Sun River Leaving

The Mullan Road left the Sun River Valley here at a place called “The Leaving.” After 1864, the road was better known as the Benton Road, connecting Fort Benton to Helena. Traffic on the road peaked during the late spring and early summers when high water allowed steamboats to off-load freight at Fort Benton. During those months, passengers and freight bound for the “States” flowed into Fort Benton. C. C. Huntley established a stage route between Helena and Fort Benton in 1866. One of the route’s most important stations was located here at The Leaving. In 1879, it took a stagecoach about two days to travel from Helena to Fort Benton. Montana pioneer Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman wrote that “No stage driver in those days drove slowly in consideration of his passengers; his duty was simply to get them to their destination on time.” Proprietors of stage stations contracted with the stage companies to provide services to the line and its passengers. The Leaving station was an important stop on the road where stagecoach drivers changed horses for the long pull to the next station. The station had a reputation for hospitality and good food. From 1877 to 1888, husband and wife Ed and Ida Reinecke ran the station. During the Reinecke’s time there, the station was the center of a small settlement that included a general store run by famed Montana capitalist T. C. Power. The arrival of the Montana Central Railroad in 1887 ended the dominance of the Benton Road and Reinecke’s stage station closed.