Mont Station began in 1892 when Nelson Montgomery donated a strip of land for the right-of-way of the St. Louis and Eastern Railway, later the Illinois Central, and a small settlement grew there with a railroad depot, post office, country store, blacksmith shop, a few houses, and a grain elevator. The original wooden elevator, owned by Vailer & Spies, was operated by Zephaniah and Nelson Montgomery, and in 1913 Valier & Spies built a new concrete elevator that still stands. Among the earliest settlers in the area were the Montgomery, Kinder, Barnsback, and Holliday families. The Montgomery family gained nation-wide fame for their stable of horses, and Nelson's daughter Phoebe became known as an excellent horse woman who won several prizes, while her horse Joe Joker set a world record for reinless racing. A spur off the Illinois Terminal connected to the Illinois Central, creating a triangle of tracks called the "Lost Three Acres," where the Glen Carbon water tower now stands with trail parking. Because the area had a good natural spring, transients seeking short-term farm work or a meal in the vicinity used it as a place to hop a train in any direction.