Howdy Everyone! Glad to See You

The cabin's own town went through three names before it greeted anyone. Lima began as Allerdice, became Spring Hill, and took its present name in 1889, after Lima, Ohio, the home of an early settler. The Utah and Northern had crossed Monida Pass into the territory on May 9, 1880, and reached the town fifteen miles on. When Jon Axline of the state transportation department wrote the history of the border stations for Montana The Magazine of Western History in 2011, his article carried this panel's greeting as its title.

What the plaque says

Howdy Everyone! Glad to See You Interstate 15, MP 15, Lima Rest Area The Department of Transportation launched an ambitious program in 1936 to promote the state's scenic, recreational, and historic treasures. The brainchild of department engineer Bob Fletcher, the program included roadside historical markers, landscaped picnic areas, roadside museums, highway maps, and a network of ports-of- entry stations strategically located at each of the main highways at Montana's border. The stations consisted of rustic-looking log cabins, like this one, manned during the summer months by well-mannered and courteous college students duded up in blue jeans, western-style shirts, cowboy boots, and bandannas. The attendants distributed information and answered questions from visitors to Montana about its natural and historic resources, providing each out-of-state vehicle with a road map and tabloid history of the state. The MDT built this station in 1936 and it originally sat along old US Highway 91 in Lima. For two decades, thousands of vistors to Montana stopped at the cabin to learn about the state and receive a friendly welcome to Big Sky Country. The stations were an important part of Montana's tourist industry until the MDT Phased them out in the 1950s.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• The Tendoy Mountains — steps away
• The Montana Road — steps away
• The Montana - Utah Road — 18 mi
• Beaver Canyon — 25 mi