The Powder River Basin and Tongue River Sandstone

The Northern Pacific's coal town found a second life in electricity. In 1959 the Montana Power Company bought the railroad's coal leases, its mining machinery and the town itself, and in the 1970s it and partner utilities began building a generating station at the mouth of the mine. Units 1 and 2 went into service in 1975 and 1976, Units 3 and 4 in 1984 and 1986, their power carried west on 500,000-volt lines to the Pacific Northwest. Water comes about thirty miles by pipeline from the Yellowstone. The two oldest units shut down in January 2020.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Deer Medicine Rocks — 13 mi
  The sandstone outcrop on Rosebud Creek that carries Sitting Bull's vision of 1876: soldiers falling into the camp.