Montana's Hi-Line Region

This site has evolved from photographing on the Montana's Hi-Line from 2005 through 2007. Extending some 420 miles from Browning to Culbertson, this part of Montana includes a rich mix of culture, history, agriculture, geology and weather. It follows the twin paths of US Hwy 2 and the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe railroad; as well as the Milk and Missouri Rivers. Originally an open plains environment inhabited by Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre and other native tribes, the area came to be settled by farmers and ranchers of mostly European descent through the 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act [allowing 320 acre parcels] and the 1916 Stock Raising Homestead Act which allowed 640 acre tracts.

Native people were resettled on four reservations, from west to east, the Blackfeet, Rocky Boy, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck; comprising some 12,000 square miles in all. Much land remains in the hands of the US Government [US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation].

The railroad [Great Northern] encouraged settlement as actively as any ad campaign today. Promising an agricultural nirvana based on the unproved idea of dryland farming, towns were established every 6-10 miles with unlikely European names [Havre, Inverness, Glasgow, Kremlin]. When drought came in the early 1920's, many ranches failed and several families headed for more productive land in Washington and Oregon. A resettlement program helped many who stayed in Montana. Massive irrigation projects improved many areas. Fort Peck Dam, on the Missouri near Glasgow, put thousands to work in the 1930's. Gibson Reservoir and its distribution canals at the Rocky Mountain Front made new farm lands available away from the Hi-Line.

Life has not been easy for anyone here and everywhere are the marks of skill, persistence and heartbreak. These images may suggest a place that's dying while that is not at all the case. It certainly requires many times 640 acres for a ranching family to survive and the population has thinned with time. Those remaining brave difficult seasons in a stunningly beautiful landscape. Towns still populated are inhabited by very resilient people who fully understand the limits and rewards of this challenging region.

To take the road trip and see the "there" there, click on the hands. [This page is best viewed with vertical screen resolution of 800px or more.]