SOUTHEAST MONTANA 78 SOUTHEAST MONTANA - VISITMT.COM SOUTHEAST MONTANA SOUTHEAST MONTANA www.southeastmontana.com · 800.346.1876 Nowhere does cowboy culture and American Indian lore live on like it does in Southeast Montana. While this region is largely made up of ranch land and rural communities, Southeast Montana’s spectacular badlands and rolling prairie play host to real-life cattle drives and rodeos, wild-horse stampedes and powwows. Southeast Montana is also a land of contrasts. It is home to Billings, the state’s largest city. Though many Montanans enjoy visiting Billings for its “big city” cuisine and entertainment, out-of-staters will delight in its cowboyish charm—bolo ties on for big occasions, custom- made cowboy hats and one of the state’s largest rodeos. You don’t need to be a local or even know about the history here to sense the chill of battle at the Little Bighorn Battlefield or feel the “big medicine” at Medicine Rocks State Park. You don’t have to be a cowboy to thrill at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale or marvel at the Big Horn County Museum. But to really soak up Southeast Montana, you may have to get a little dirty—and sometimes a little snowy. After all, some of the best draws here are hunting, angling (especially for prehistoric paddlefish), dinosaur fossil hunting, mountain biking, horseback riding and agate-hounding. Explorers here have a perfect Hollywood-Western backdrop: the sheer 1,000-foot plunge into Bighorn Canyon, Pompeys Pillar (complete with William Clark’s signature) and the surreal badlands formations at Makoshika State Park. Between cattle drives and dude ranches, snowshoeing trips and the Crow Fair and Rodeo, Southeast Montana is where the landscape, the history and the laid-back way of life join together to make a memorable Montana experience. Left: Makoshika State Park near Glendive Above: Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area near Fort Smith AT A GLANCE + The Jersey Lily is the only business still running in tiny Ingomar, located along US 12 between Forsyth and Roundup, but the bean soup is renowned around the state. + Near Billings, you’ll find Pictograph Cave State Park, thought to be inhabited prehistorically for about 10,000 years. Excavations in the area have unearthed almost 30,000 Paleo-Indian artifacts. + Makoshika (as in Makoshika State Park) translates into “land of bad spirits” in Lakota. It’s pronounced ma-KO-she-ka. + When Pierre Wibaux’s father sent money to build a Catholic church, Wibaux set the Norman French immigrants to task building a fancy old-Europe-style church, St. Peter’s, in the town of Wibaux. + 85 percent of the Crow on the Crow Reservation speak Crow as their first language. SOUTHEAST MONTANA - VISITMT.COM 79 state’s largest and has direct flights from PHOTOGRAPHING KNOW BEFORE nine major U.S. cities year-round, with additional flights added for the summer TRIBAL CEREMONIES YOU GO months. Powwows and dances have deep religious significance and typically do not BEST TIME TO VISIT As you drive Southeast Montana’s scenic allow flash photography. Be sure to have byways, remember to give horseback permission before snapping photos at To experience a powwow or a cattle drive, riders on the road plenty of clearance, tribal ceremonies. For more information you’ll want to hit Southeast Montana in the and drive around them very slowly. If you on proper etiquette while visiting the summer. Fall is decidedly hunting season encounter a cattle drive crossing the road, reservations and how to best enjoy your in these parts, and fly fishers happily fish wait for signals from the cattlemen that it’s experience, contact tribal offices atvisitmt. on through the winter (and every other safe to move through. com/indiannations. SOUTHEAST MONTANA season). Hikers and mountain bikers can start exploring as soon as the snow melts in spring, on through the summer and WHAT TO PACK FOOD into fall, when the weather is cool enough If you’re heading to a cattle drive or Food runs the gamut in Southeast to keep sweatiness at bay. In the winter, working ranch, absolutely bring your Montana, from Asian fusion picks in cross-country skis and snowshoes turn cowboy boots! You’ll soon discover just Billings to gourmet, locally grown fare to Cranbrook, BC the scenery into your playground, and if how functional they really are. For general found in unlikely littleto Regina, ranching SK towns to Cardston, AB to Assiniboia, SK to Lethbridge, AB you want to get in some downhill turns, tromping about, you’ll want ato goodKildeer, SKpair CANADA to Swift Current, SK like Broadus. Expect “homestyle prairie Rexford CANADA Yaak Eureka head to Red Lodge Mountain Resort, just of tennis shoes or hiking boots and a few Westby GLACIER food”—beefWhitetail steaks and potatoes. Soak Babb Sweetgrass Port of Four an hour southwest of Billings. layers, especially a wind-resistant one. Flaxville NATIONAL Sweetgrass Opheim Buttesup the town’s character and meet friendly Fortine Polebridge BLACKFEET Sunburst Turner Trego St. Mary INDIAN In the winter, gloves, hat, a warm parka Peerless localsScobey by figuringPlentywood out where the locals Loring Whitewater ND to Fortuna, PARK RESERVATION Lake Cut Bank HOW TO GET HERE and snow boots will most likely come in eat—in many small towns, the best Troy Apgar McDonald Browning Chinook handy. Dress is casual here, and you’d be Medicine Lake Libby West Glacier FORT PECK restaurant or longest-standing bar serves Columbia K INDIAN RESERVATION Shelby AMTRA I-94 and I-90 constitute the main pipelines, hard-pressed to tell a ranching baron from Falls Coram Rudyard as an informal community gathering spot. A Martin City Chester Froid MT with MT 59, HavreUS 12 and US Fort 212 (also AM Hinsdale RAK Whitefish Hungry Horse East Glacier Galata TRAaK farmhandSaco on clothes alone. SaintBlue jeans, Also, we know beer isn’t food, but we Park Valier Box Belknap Marie Lustre knownElder as the Warrior Trail) branching off.Dodson sweatshirts and Vandaliaball caps are the norm. Kalispell Essex Agency Malta would be remissCulbertson if we didn’t encourage Heart Butte FORT BELKNAP Kila Dupuyer Logan International Airport in Billings is the ROCKY BOY’S INDIAN Glasgow Nashua Wolfyou to samplePoplar Southeast Montana’s Marion Bigfork Flathead River AMTRAK Heron Big Sandy INDIAN RESERVATION Point Bainville Somers to Williston, ND to Sandpoint, ID Noxon Conrad RESERVATION Lakeside FLATHEAD Rollins Bynum Brady Proctor VALLEY Swan Lake Fort Fairview Trout Dayton Virgelle Peck C. M. RUSSELL Creek Elmo Fort Benton Loma Big Arm Choteau Landusky Zortman NATIONAL WILDLIFE Thompson REFUGE Sidney Falls Hot Springs Polson Lambert NORTH DAKOTA Crane Condon Fairfield Great This map is for reference only; see the Haugan Ronan Vaughn Official Montana Highway Map for more detail. Plains Falls Savage De Borgia Charlo Augusta Winifred Bloomfield St. Regis Paradise FLATHEAD INDIAN Moiese RESERVATION Fort Shaw Brusett Circle to Coeur d’Alene, ID to Coeur d’Alene, IDAHO Belt Dixon St. Ignatius Ulm Roy Stockett Raynesford Denton Jordan Brockway Superior Cascade Geyser Arlee Seeley 253 Lake Stanford Glendive Ovando Craig Monarch Lewistown Alberton Sand Springs Wibaux Lincoln Hobson Winnett Cohagen Missoula Wolf Creek 253 Greenough Neihart Grass Mosby Bonner Range Helmville Utica Lolo Terry ND to Dickinson, Clinton Canyon Creek Fallon Marysville BITTERROOT East Florence Drummond Judith Gap to Kooskia, ID VALLEY Helena Helena Melstone Ingomar PINTLER White Sulphur Ismay Victor Stevensville SCENIC Elliston Plevna ROUTE Garrison Montana Springs Two Clancy Winston City Dot Harlowton Miles City Deer Baker Corvallis Philipsburg Jefferson Martinsdale Roundup Lodge Basin Hysham Forsyth Hamilton City Townsend Ringling ND to Bowman, Georgetown Lake Boulder Bighorn Rosebud Darby Anaconda 569 Custer Conner Worden Ekalaka Wise Butte Wilsall Logan Big Colstrip Sula River Manhattan Pompeys Pillar Dewey Three Clyde Park Timber Whitehall Belgrade Greycliff Silver Forks Divide Harrison Livingston Reed Point Laurel Lame SOUTH DAKOTA Star Columbus Billings Deer Wisdom Hardin Crow Ashland to Melrose Pony McLeod WARRI Olive Twin Gallatin Agency OR Salmon, ID PIONEER CROW INDIAN IL Bridges Gateway TRA MTNS Sheridan Bozeman Park HI 278 Norris Absarokee City RESERVATION Garryowen Busby GH SCENIC PARADISE Rockvale NORTHERN CHEYENNE WAY Broadus BYWAY VALLEY Fishtail Saint Xavier Jackson Nevada Joliet Pryor INDIAN RESERVATION Polaris City Ennis Pray Nye Roberts Lodge Fort Smith Birney Alder Emigrant Roscoe Grass 278 Bridger Virginia Big Bannack Dillon City Sky Otter Cameron Red Lodge Wyola Biddle Alzada BIGHORN CANYON Cooke Belfry Grant Gardiner Silver NATIONAL REC. AREA Decker Gate City 324 WYOMING to Belle Fourche, SD 324 Quake Tower Junction WYOMING to Gillette, WY Mammoth to Sheridan, WY Lake BEARTOOTH to Cody, WY to Lovell, WY Hot Springs ALLAMERICAN ROAD YELLOWSTONE Dell Canyon Norris Lima NATIONAL80 SOUTHEAST MONTANA - VISITMT.COM Madison Monida Lakeview West Junction PARK Yellowstone Lake West IDAHO to Idaho Falls, ID Thumb to Rexburg, ID Old Faithful Grant Village to Grand Teton Natl Park and Jackson, WY SOUTHEAST MONTANA Running along the rims in Billings authentic microbrewed beer from one BROADUS is just west of the Powder of the stops on the Montana Dinosaur of Billings’ many microbreweries, or River and has been described as the Trail and features some of the finest from Beaver Creek Brewery in Wibaux, “Gateway and Crossroads” of Southeast paleontological discoveries in the U.S. where the stout perfectly complements Montana. The town has several museums Chalk Buttes, Long Pines and Ekalaka Hills the homemade chocolate chip cookie showcasing the original county jail, antique near town provide excellent camping and included with every pint. cars, Native American artifacts, unique hunting for mule deer, white-tailed deer minerals, wildlife mounts, antique and and wild turkeys. commemorative guns and local art.