EKALAKA — The nearly 36-mile stretch of Montana Highway 7 from Baker to Ekalaka is lined with white crosses, memorials to those who have lost their life driving on the road.
In the five years Carter County Deputy Sheriff Dwayne Bruce has been in his position, he has responded to over 20 vehicle wrecks on the highway, and two have been fatalities. Every time he receives that call, he knows it won't be a good scene.
"There’s no room for error, I guess is my biggest complaint with Highway 7,” Bruce said. “You just assume (the wreck is) going to be bad because there's a lot of ways it could go. If somebody leaves that roadway at highway speeds, it's never going be good.”
As people from around the country will converge on the small town of Ekalaka this summer for the 12th annual Dino Shindig, starting on Saturday, July 27, concern for the safety of drivers only grows. The highway has no shoulder, blind hills, and steep drop-offs along the side of the road.
“It's like white line and then a huge drop-off,” said Marcell Bruski, who grew up in Ekalaka. "You want to make sure that people can get to those towns because they have events and they have things going on that are economic drivers in those communities. And if it's not safe to get there, you're not going to go.”
Bruski now lives in Billings and works at Big Sky Economic Development. She makes a trip back to her hometown at least once a year to visit family, driving down the road that's caused far too many deaths in a small community.
“I think it’s heartbreaking because in communities like that, you all know each other,” Bruski said.
The Montana Department of Transportation lifted and smoothed the highway years ago, but Bruce said lifting the roadway only made the drop-off more dangerous.
“It’s rough, it’s wavy. When it rains the water pools in the middle," Bruce said. "The people of Carter County and people that drive that are not from here deserve that margin of error and a reasonably safe road.”
Bruce hopes to raise awareness about the dangers of the road and bring attention to the work that needs to be done to make it safer.
“Our county commissioners have brought it up to the state, different levels, but, we’re at the tail end of everything,” Bruce said.
Shane Mintz, the Glendive district administrator for MDOT, said they do have a plan for a project to rebuild the highway section from mile marker 7 to around mile marker 16. The project is in development, but it will cost them around $2 million per mile, so the agency has to wait a few years for funding. According to Mintz, the hope is to start the project in the spring of 2028 to add more of a shoulder section.
