The historic GTA grain elevator near downtown Glendive stands 160 feet tall. In 2026 Bozeman artist Griffin Foster took it on as the canvas for the largest mural in Montana, with Matt Bachman as his technical backup, working from a boom lift.

Foster drew the design from his visits to Glendive, to capture classic Montana, in two views: one for travellers on Interstate 94, one for the town on the eastern wall.

The mural is the first step of a plan for a tourism hub along the Yellowstone: small business spaces, an outdoor performance stage, public restrooms and food truck hookups, paid for by the Montana Department of Commerce's Pilot Community Tourism Grant (February 2025).

Every night the Bell Street Bridge is lit in memory of Justice D. Hagen, “Juice”, of Glendive.

What happened

Justice, the daughter of Angie and Darren Hagen, died in a car accident outside Glendive on June 25, 2020, a month after her 18th birthday and weeks after she graduated from high school.

Who put them there

On the day of Justice's funeral her mother, Angie Hagen, announced that she would light the bridge. Through The Justice Foundation, known as Love Like Justice, the Hagens raised the money by selling Love Like Justice shirts, stickers and merchandise, and gave the lights to Glendive. Justice's father placed each of the 111 strands of LED lights.

Why rainbow

They were first lit on December 31, 2022, in rainbow: Justice loved every colour and never picked a favourite. In 2024 the lights reached the west end, across all six arches.

What they are for

Every night of the year the bridge shines in a colour for a local person, an event or a cause. Some nights are sponsored as fundraisers, others are donated, and anyone can book a night through Love Like Justice.

“We light the bridge for so many different people.”Angie Hagen

The third bridge across the Yellowstone at Glendive, and one of the longest riveted Warren through trusses in Montana.

The bridges before it

The first bridge here, built in 1896 by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, was the first across the Yellowstone below Columbus, 260 miles upstream. It had four spans, one of them a swing span, because the river was still counted navigable. The ice jam of April 1899 tore part of it away. It was rebuilt in 1900 with one of its old spans and three new ones.

Who built it

Engineers of the Montana Highway Commission designed the present bridge, built with federal aid in 1924–26 by Boomer, McGuire & Blakesley of Great Falls, at a cost of $305,000. It went up beside the 1900 bridge, which was taken down as soon as it was done. For ranchers and farmers west of the river it was the way to the railroad in Glendive.

A walking bridge

It carried traffic until 1992, when the Business Loop bridge opened 300 feet to the north and the Montana Department of Transportation rehabilitated it for walkers and cyclists. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 3, 1988, and the town keeps Bell Street Bridge Day each September. Since December 31, 2022, Justice's Lights have lit it every night.

In memory of James and Margaret Sullivan and their six children, who died in the ice-jam flood of April 1899.

The ice jam

On the night of Friday, April 7, 1899, the ice on the Yellowstone broke up and drove against the piers of the bridge at Glendive, knocking out three of its sections. Dammed behind the ice, the river at the bridge rose from 19 to 30 feet within hours and flooded thousands of acres upstream.

The Sullivans

James Sullivan, who came from Ireland in 1881, married Margaret in Glendive in 1886. They lived with their six children across the river from town, about 200 yards from the water. When Sheriff Aiken and Charles Parker crossed the river among the floating ice, they found the house with its doors and windows open and the whole family dead inside. From where they lay, the men believed they had died in their sleep.

Remembered

Twelve people died in the flood, among them Nellie Regan, Rose Wybrecht, Eugene O'Connor and Mrs. Snyder at the Snyder ranch, half a mile south of town. A granite monument over the Sullivan family's graves still stands in the Dawson County Cemetery. Ice-jam floods have reached Glendive many times since 1890.

The grain elevator, its mural, the Yellowstone and the Bell Street Bridge, built at true scale from my photographs, USGS aerial imagery, lidar, elevation data and map data.

The bridge is lit every night in memory of Justice D. Hagen. Support the lights, or book a colour for someone you have lost.