blackfoot-valley

Powell County Shifting our focus away from the region and the state, the Meyer Com- pany Ranch is located in the geographical center of Powell County, today one of Montana’s less populated counties. The county shows on the map as oddly shaped in a zigzag fashion, long and narrow with its north-south length four times its average width east to west. (Red shape on map of Montana above.) Powell County did not exist as such until the turn of the twentieth cen- tury. Prior to that, its area was included as a portion of Deer Lodge County, which was originally designated when Montana became a territory in 1864. Deer Lodge County at the time was very large, extending north from the Silver Bow Valley where Butte is located, crossing the Divide to include just- forming Helena and continuing north all the way to the Canadian border, with Deer Lodge as the county seat. As the region developed, Deer Lodge Coun- ty’s area was reduced piecemeal as other areas formed their own counties. Across the Divide, Jefferson County broke off as did Helena to form Lewis and Clark County (which rather incongruously includes the upper Blackfoot around 97