Horton

What happened when the last man in the railroad town of Horton got hit by a train and died one year before the state remade the highway map? Does the town disappear? His name was Frank Hartman. He had a story and his son knows it. To walk that town site with him reveals a rich layer of history – a history more rich than the abandoned schoolyard littered with rusty farm equipment and flanked by two old outhouses, one for girls and one for boys.

Horton found a home on the Montana map in the late 1800s. Like many towns on the map, Horton began as a section stop on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Nils Kildahl operated the post office at Horton from 1899 to 1904. The post office closed and then reopened from 1915 - 1945. The Hartmans moved to Horton in 1956 when they bought a ranch from Earl and Edna Kildahl. Frank Hartman went to school at Horton before it closed in the late 1960s.

“We didn't have enough kids to play baseball, that's for sure, although we tried,” Hartman said.