e-ReferenceDesk's College and 50 State Learning Resource Guide

Find Online Colleges

Find Campus Colleges

Montana State...

Montana

Choose a County

Montana Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

Montana Counties

There are56 Counties in Montana. Montana has two consolidated city-counties—Anaconda with Deer Lodge County and Butte with Silver Bow County. The portion of Yellowstone National Park that lies within Montana was not part of any county until 1997, when part of it was nominally added to Gallatin County, and the rest of it to Park County.

Chouteau County, Montana

Chouteau County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Fort Benton
Year Organized: 1865
Square Miles: 3,973

Court House:

P.O. Box 459, 1308 Franklin
County Courthouse
Fort Benton, MT 59442-0459

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Jean Pierre Chouteau and his son Pierre Chouteau, Jr., of the Chouteau fur-trading family

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Chouteau County was created 2 February 1865 as an original county. County seat: Fort Benton

Chouteau County is located in North Central Montana, about 100 miles south of the Canadian border. Established in 1865, it is one of the original nine counties of the Montana Territory. It was named in 1882 for Auguste & Pierre Chouteau, fur traders and owners of the original trading post Historic Old Fort Benton, from which the community of Fort Benton, today's county seat, took its name. Fort Benton, named for Senator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, was once an important port on the Missouri River. Fur traders, gold seekers, and settlers came via steamboats to Fort Benton, the "Head of Navigation" on the Missouri River. Today, Fort Benton still retains much of its "steamboat days" character. Fort Benton, Big Sandy & Geraldine are the population centers with smaller communities in Loma, Carter, Floweree, Highwood, Shonkin, and Square Butte.

Chouteau County was once the largest county in the Montana Territory and the second largest in the United States. Chouteau County was subdivided repeatedly to form other counties until it reached its present size, an area of 3936 square miles and a population of 5,738. It is home to the Chippewa-Cree tribe on the Rocky Boys Indian reservation in the Bear's Paw Mountains to the northeast, and contains part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in the Highwood Mountains to the south. The terrain is primarily gently rolling plains that are dissected in the central portion by the eastward flowing Missouri River. The land is a complex of uplands, valleys, coulees, and broad plains. The primary surface water sources are the Missouri, Marias, and Teton Rivers. Streams of secondary importance are Highwood, Shonkin, Big Sandy and Arrow Creek.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,997 square miles (10,352 km²). 3,973 square miles (10,291 km²) of it is land and 24 square miles (62 km²) of it (0.59%) is water.

Chouteau County was once the largest county in the Montana Territory and the second largest in the United States, with an area of 15,439 square miles in the early 20th century. However, some parts of the county were over 250 miles from Fort Benton, and in 1909 an agreement was reached to subdivide the county.

Chouteau County lost half of its population from 1910 to 1930.

The land is mostly prairie. The Bear Paw Mountains rise in the eastern section and the Little Rockies and the Highwood ranges are in the southern portion. Major rivers include the Teton River, Marias River, Milk River and the Arrow River.

Neighboring Counties:

Liberty County, Montana - north
Hill County, Montana - north
Blaine County, Montana - east
Fergus County, Montana - southeast
Judith Basin County, Montana - south
Cascade County, Montana - south
Teton County, Montana - west
Pondera County, Montana - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Big Sandy	town	Incorporated Area
- Fort Benton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Geraldine	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."