Railroads dominated Montana's transportation system as the first line reached the territory in 1881 and, by 1916, more than 5,200 miles of track crossed the state, transforming small communities into busy rail centers, creating new towns, and extending service to nearly every region by 1910 through three transcontinental railroads and their branch and spur lines. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy entered the Hardin area in 1894 through its subsidiary, the Big Horn Southern Railroad Company, and over the next decade other subsidiaries expanded lines in south central Montana before connecting them to the railroad's main line in 1911. Growth in the sugar beet industry beginning in 1921 led the railroad to build a branch line north of Hardin to meet the Northern Pacific Railway at Custer in 1941, carrying sugar beets grown along the Bighorn River south to the Holly Sugar Company plant at Hardin, until the factory closed in 1971 and the branch line was abandoned.