Columbus, Montana

Columbus grew from a trading post at one of the most useful river junctions in Montana: the point where the Stillwater River meets the Yellowstone. Horace Countryman opened a stage stop and store here in eighteen seventy-five to trade with the nearby Crow Agency. He called the spot Stillwater.

The Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in eighteen eighty-two, and the settlement was later renamed Columbus to end mail confusion with Stillwater, Minnesota. The railroad made Columbus a shipping hub: cattle ranchers from across Granite and Stillwater counties drove their herds here for loading onto eastbound cars. When Stillwater County was carved out of the surrounding territory in nineteen thirteen, Columbus became its seat. Today it sits at the base of the Beartooth Highway, the gateway through which most travelers drive toward Red Lodge and the northeast entrance to Yellowstone, passing through the same river junction that first drew a trader to set up shop a century and a half ago.