Philip Gallaher, a civil engineer and determined visionary, pushed for a Cooke City railroad and enlisted the help of Boston financier Elijah Smith.  The financial Panic of 1893 and interference by the Northern Pacific stymied Smith and Gallaher’s efforts, but in 1903 a Billings businessman and a youthful entrepreneur from Milwaukee joined Gallaher to revitalize the quest for a rail line to Bear Creek and Cooke City.  Construction of the Yellowstone Park Railroad began in 1905, but it never came close to Cooke City or its namesake destination.