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Welcome to Garfield County, Montana
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Image Courtesy of KariLyn Honadel Photography
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1930 Map of Garfield County.
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Located in the northeastern
portion of the State of Montana, Garfield County is 4,840 square miles in size.
It is bordered on the North by Fort Peck Lake and the Missouri River, as well
as by Phillips and Valley Counties. Petroleum County is to the West, Rosebud
and Custer Counties lay to the South, and McCone and Prairie Counties are to
the East.
Garfield County was
created in 1919 out of Dawson County, one of the original sixteen counties at
Statehood. Most of Garfield County is drained by Big Dry Creek, mentioned in the
Lewis and Clark Journals. Large cattle companies made use of the open range
until the late 1880's, when the first fenced ranches began to form. Many of
these early ranchers were cowboys employed, or formerly employed, by the large
cattle companies. The population of the Big Dry Creek Country increased greatly
during the homestead boom between 1900 and 1920. After 1920, the population
declined, and Old homestead lands returned to grazing land. Garfield County
remains ranch country to the present day. The county seat is Jordan. In 2010,
the county had a population of over 1,200.
Garfield County Communities
The county has an
active historical society. County contacts, as well as links to the Garfield
County Historical Society, Message boards and other helpful sites can be found
on the Resources Page.
Garfield County Resources
Neighboring MTGenWeb County Sites and USGenWeb Resources
1930 County map
from The Literary Digest 1931 Atlas of the World and Gazetteer By Rand
McNally and Company. Dan Shurtliff is your MTGenWeb Project Volunteer for
Garfield County. If you have questions about this site, or have ideas for
improvements, feel free to contact
me. I am unable to do research.
This website was last updated November 20, 2017.