Just three miles north of Wickes lies a small community of houses formerly known as Corbin.
Corbin played a crucial role in Wickes mining pursuits as it was home to the concentrator — where the ore is separated from other materials and transformed into “usable raw material,” according to Arcelor Mittal, a steel manufacturing company.
Like Wickes, Corbin featured an intriguing piece of railroad equipment that still stands today: the historic Corbin railroad trestle.
The original trestle was built in 1888 out of wood, according to documents at the Jefferson County Museum detailing its history.
In August of 1895, a fire set to clean up a Montana Central wreck threatened to take the trestle with it, according to the Wickes Pioneer, but it survived unscathed. The railroad’s reputation was not as fortunate.
The aforementioned wreck took place just passed the trestle between Corbin and Wickes and buried potentially dozens in rubble. The Pioneer called for changed:
“If the Great Northern does not take some steps to put the trestle near Corbin in repair that some time in the near future the people in this vicinity will wintess one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of that railroad.”
The report went on to claim that as trains passed over the wooden structure, it swayed back and forth “like a ship in a storm.”
Another report several months later called for the railroad company to replace the trestle with a steel structure, talk that had supposedly gone on for several years.
The report also featured a quote from an engineer saying the trestle’s state worried him so much that he was going to request another route.
In April of 1896, the Pioneer reported that Great Northern surveyors would be in town to replace “the old, condemned wooden trestle at that place with a new steel structure.” The project was expected to cost $60,000.
“It is also to be hoped that when the improvements have been completed the trains will occasionally — just occasionally — arrive on time.
The Jefferson County Museum lists that the trestle was replaced with steel by 1901.
By 1982, it was abandoned and Jefferson County took possession.
