Montana is big country with a history to match. The state holds the ground where the Nez Perce and the Lakota and Cheyenne made their stands, where Lewis and Clark struggled up the Missouri, where gold camps boomed and faded into ghost towns, and where the Great Northern Railway opened the mountains to the world. Its past is inseparable from its sweeping landscapes.
I taught American history for decades before retiring in 2018, and Montana is one of the richest states in the country for a history-minded traveler. The 15 sites below mix national parks with National Park Service battlefields and trails, state historic sites, and a ghost town or two. Several mark hard chapters that deserve quiet respect.
To plan around the marquee parks, see our guides to things to do in Glacier and things to do in Yellowstone.
Historic Sites In Montana At A Glance
| Site | Region | Managed By | Good To Know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glacier National Park | Northwest MT | National Park Service | Peace park with glaciers and Going-to-the-Sun Road |
| Yellowstone National Park | Southern MT / WY | National Park Service | World’s first national park |
| Little Bighorn Battlefield NM | Southeast MT | National Park Service | Site of Custer’s 1876 defeat |
| Nez Perce National Historical Park | Western MT | National Park Service | Sites across the Nez Perce homeland |
| Big Hole National Battlefield | Southwest MT | National Park Service | 1877 battle of the Nez Perce flight |
| Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS | Deer Lodge | National Park Service | Working cattle ranch of the open-range era |
| Fort Union Trading Post NHS | Eastern MT / ND | National Park Service | Reconstructed fur-trade post |
| Lewis and Clark Historic Trail | Along the Missouri | National Park Service | Follows the expedition’s route |
| Pompeys Pillar National Monument | Near Billings | Bureau of Land Management | Bears William Clark’s signature |
| Bannack State Park | Southwest MT | Montana State Parks | Best-preserved gold-rush ghost town |
| Virginia City Historic District | Southwest MT | State / nonprofit | Restored 1860s gold-rush town |
| Fort Benton Historic District | Central MT | City / NHL district | Birthplace of Montana on the Missouri |
| Pictograph Cave State Park | Near Billings | Montana State Parks | Ancient rock art and artifacts |
| Great Northern Railway Buildings | Glacier area | National Park Service | Grand historic park lodges |
| Ice Age Floods Geologic Trail | Western MT | National Park Service | Traces a vast prehistoric flood |
15. Great Northern Railway Buildings
When the Great Northern Railway reached the edge of Glacier National Park in the early 1900s, the company built a string of grand lodges and chalets to lure travelers west by rail. Lodges like Glacier Park Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel, with their massive timber lobbies, defined the early experience of the park.
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Many of these buildings survive within and around the park and are recognized as National Historic Landmarks. The National Park Service oversees those inside the park boundary. Staying in or simply visiting one of these lodges is a step back into the golden age of railroad tourism.
14. Fort Benton Historic District
Often called the birthplace of Montana, Fort Benton sits at the head of navigation on the Missouri River, the farthest point steamboats could reach. In the mid 1800s it was a booming inland port where furs, gold, and goods changed hands, the start of trails leading deep into the northern Rockies and Canada.
The town’s historic district is a National Historic Landmark, with a restored levee, old fort remains, and museums along the river. It is a quiet, atmospheric place that once hummed as one of the most important trade hubs in the West.
13. Pompeys Pillar National Monument
On the bank of the Yellowstone River near Billings stands a sandstone butte bearing the only physical trace left on the landscape by the Lewis and Clark expedition. In 1806, William Clark carved his name and the date into the rock, and his signature is still visible today behind protective glass.
Clark named the pillar for Sacagawea’s young son, whom he nicknamed Pompey. The Bureau of Land Management manages the monument, with a boardwalk to the inscription and a visitor center. It is a rare, tangible link to one of the great journeys in American history.
12. Virginia City Historic District
Gold discovered in Alder Gulch in 1863 set off one of the richest rushes in the West, and Virginia City sprang up almost overnight as the heart of it. For a time it served as the capital of Montana Territory. When the gold faded, the town did not vanish but slowly emptied, leaving its 1860s buildings remarkably intact.
A National Historic Landmark, Virginia City is now a living museum with restored shops, a working historic theater, and a steam railroad to neighboring Nevada City. Walking its boardwalks is like stepping straight into the gold-rush era.
11. Pictograph Cave State Park
Just outside Billings, a series of sandstone caves shelters rock art painted by Native peoples over thousands of years. Pictograph Cave holds images of animals, warriors, and figures, some more than 2,000 years old, and excavations here uncovered tens of thousands of artifacts that helped define the region’s prehistory.
Montana State Parks protects the site, with a short trail and viewing area beneath the caves. It is one of the most important archaeological sites on the northern plains and a window into the deep human history of the land.
10. Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Montana held some of the hardest miles of the entire Lewis and Clark expedition, from the grueling portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri to the search for a route over the Continental Divide. The captains spent more time in what is now Montana than in any other state.
The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service, traces their route along the rivers and across the mountains. An interpretive center in Great Falls is among the best on the entire trail, bringing the expedition’s struggles vividly to life.
9. Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
At the end of the last ice age, an enormous glacial lake dammed by ice formed across western Montana. When the ice dam failed, it unleashed catastrophic floods that swept across the Northwest, carving the landscape of four states. The remnants of Glacial Lake Missoula are still visible as ancient shorelines etched into the hills above Missoula.
The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, designated by Congress and administered by the National Park Service, interprets this vast event across Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The high-water marks around Missoula are a striking place to begin understanding the scale of it.
8. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
At Deer Lodge, Grant-Kohrs Ranch preserves the headquarters of what was once a cattle empire spanning millions of acres across the northern plains. It tells the story of the open-range era, when great herds and cowboys defined the West, and of the ranching that followed when the open range closed.
The National Park Service keeps the ranch as a working operation, with cowboys, historic barns, and a chuckwagon. Visitors can tour the elegant ranch house and watch ranch work much as it was done a century ago. It is the best place anywhere to understand cattle-country history.
7. Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
On the Montana-North Dakota border, where the Yellowstone joins the Missouri, Fort Union was the greatest fur-trading post on the upper Missouri from 1828 to 1867. The American Fur Company traded here with the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, and other nations, exchanging buffalo robes and furs for manufactured goods.
The National Park Service has reconstructed the colorful palisaded fort on its original site, with costumed interpreters and a summer rendezvous. It captures the era when the fur trade, not the army, was the main face of American expansion on the plains.
6. Bannack State Park
Gold found on Grasshopper Creek in 1862 created Bannack, Montana’s first major mining camp and briefly its territorial capital. The town was infamous for its sheriff, Henry Plummer, who was hanged by vigilantes for allegedly leading a gang of road agents. As the gold ran out, Bannack slowly emptied and was left to the elements.
Now a state park, Bannack is one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the country, with more than 50 historic buildings standing along its quiet main street. Montana State Parks keeps it in a state of arrested decay, so you can wander through it much as the last residents left it.
5. Big Hole National Battlefield
In August 1877, during the Nez Perce flight toward Canada, the U.S. Army attacked a sleeping Nez Perce camp in the Big Hole valley. Dozens of Nez Perce were killed, many of them women and children, though the warriors fought back fiercely and allowed the others to escape. It was one of the saddest engagements of the long pursuit.
The National Park Service preserves the battlefield as part of Nez Perce National Historical Park, working with the Nez Perce people to tell the story. The quiet meadow and the markers ask visitors to remember those who died here. Come with respect.
4. Nez Perce National Historical Park
The Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu, lived across the inland Northwest, including parts of western Montana, for thousands of years. Nez Perce National Historical Park is unusual in that it is a network of dozens of sites spread across several states, each tied to the tribe’s history, culture, and the tragic 1877 flight led by Chief Joseph and other leaders.
The National Park Service manages the park in close partnership with the Nez Perce Tribe. Several of its sites lie in Montana along the route of the 1877 flight, including the Big Hole battlefield. Together they trace one of the most moving stories in the history of the West.
3. Yellowstone National Park
Established in 1872, Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, a place so strange and wonderful that early reports of its geysers and hot springs were dismissed as tall tales. Native peoples had known and used this land for thousands of years before it became a park. Its northern reaches lie in Montana.
The National Park Service protects Yellowstone’s geysers, canyons, and wildlife, including bison, wolves, and grizzlies. The northern entrance at Gardiner, Montana passes through the historic Roosevelt Arch. Our guide to things to do in Yellowstone covers the highlights.
2. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
On a June day in 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and much of the 7th Cavalry were killed by a large force of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors defending their families and their way of life. The battle, often called Custer’s Last Stand, was a decisive Native victory, though it hastened the army’s campaign that would follow.
The National Park Service preserves the battlefield, where scattered markers show where soldiers fell and an Indian Memorial honors the Native warriors and their cause. The site now tells the story from both sides. Standing on the windswept ridge, the weight of what happened here is unmistakable.
1. Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park protects a million acres of soaring peaks, alpine lakes, and the shrinking glaciers that give it its name. The Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai peoples have deep ties to this land, which they regard as sacred. The park joins with Canada’s Waterton Lakes to form the world’s first International Peace Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The National Park Service manages the park, crossed by the engineering marvel of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. For trip planning, see our guide to things to do in Glacier National Park.
More Things To Do In Montana
Montana’s sites spread across an enormous state, so it helps to pick a region. The northwest holds Glacier and the Great Northern lodges, the southwest holds the gold-rush towns of Bannack and Virginia City along the Lewis and Clark route, and the southeast holds Yellowstone, Little Bighorn, and Pompeys Pillar.
To extend the trip, see our guides to things to do in Yellowstone, Missouri national parks, and historic sites in Oklahoma.
