I Work the Night Shift at a Remote Toll Booth in Montana. Things Aren't Right Here.

October 26, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Toll at Coldwater Bridge

Warren Farley works the night shift at a remote toll booth on Route 9 in Montana, a county road built in 1961 that runs sixty miles north from Garnet Falls over Hessler Pass to Fort Petrie. There are no exits and no turnarounds—once you pay, you're committed. The booth is a painted steel box with a space heater that smells like burnt dust, an AM radio pulling in a Calgary call-in show, and a DVR that Jeff, his supervisor, had installed "for my protection." Warren keeps a green ledger by hand, writing down every car even though nobody asks him to. He took the nights after his husband Scott died three years ago, because the house got too quiet, and out here he sees maybe a dozen cars a shift and none of them have faces he has to talk to.

The Car That Leaves No Trace

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What you'll learn

1 (00:02) **The Night Routine** - Warren describes his isolated toll booth on Route 9 in Montana, the nightly checklist, and the road's geography.
2 (03:42) **A Voicemail and the Night's First Cars** - Jeff, Warren's supervisor, leaves a reminder about a new card reader; the early shift brings familiar, mundane traffic.
3 (05:10) **Samuel Hudson's Milk Run** - At 2:40 AM, Samuel Hudson arrives in his tanker, a nightly fixture who gives Warren a "Bit o' Honey" candy.
4 (07:46) **The First Appearance of the Buick** - At 3:12 AM, a silent, old gray Buick LeSabre with fogged windows slides into the lane, its engine making no sound.
5 (12:49) **The DVR Shows Nothing** - Warren checks the DVR camera footage, but it shows the gate arm rising and falling with no car in the lane.
6 (14:43) **The Buick Returns with Samuel** - At 3:52 AM, the same Buick returns from the north, impossible given the travel time, and now has two shapes in the back seat.
7 (17:30) **The Aftermath and the Sheriff** - Warren calls Samuel's phone and then the sheriff, reporting that Samuel is missing in the back of another car.

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Show Notes

I Work the Night Shift at a Remote Toll Booth in Montana. Things Aren't Right Here.