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For the most part, the physical and social geography of Southwest Montana has changed little with the passage of time. Ranching and agriculture are the major lifestyles, and the Bitterroot and Gallatin valleys still draw the most folks. Water, which played a significant role in the past, is still important today. Here in this quadrant of the state is the gathering place for the rivers forming the three forks of the big Missouri. The Jefferson and Gallatin both get their start...
Fur trappers, followed quickly on the heels of Lewis and Clark into the new frontier. Searching for beaver to satisfy the latest fashion demands of Europeans, they wandered to what would become Montana Territory and particularly to the southwest sector of the state. But they were not settlers, just passers-through, and they left behind a mostly negative legacy that included degradation of the natives and a depletion of resources that saw the profits flow to only a few....
An important portion of The Corps of Discovery's journey occurred in southwest Montana. On July 19, 1805, Lewis and his men were struggling up the Missouri between present-day Upper and Lower Holter lakes. "from the singular appearance of this place I called it the gates of the rocky mountains." The next day, searching for "the three forks of the Missouri," they entered the first of southwest Montana's big valleys – Helena's Prickly Pear Valley. Arriving at the meeting of t...
Defining a province like Southwest Montana is subjective. For us, an imaginary line commences at Lolo Pass west of Missoula and moves east along Interstate 90 and the Clark Fork River to Garrison Junction. Then it follows Highway 12 over McDonald Pass to Helena. From there, our boundary extends slightly in a southeasterly direction, taking in the Big Belt Mountains before heading to Bozeman and then along the Gallatin Range crest to West Yellowstone. The south and west line of...
