Deer Lodge Montana

Deer Lodge and Powell County, Montana 59722 web site Deer Lodge and Powell County, Montana - where the real west lives! Come explore the storied past of Deer Lodge. Visit the Old Prison Museums and the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic site under the snow capped peak of nearby Mount Powell. Drive the scenic back roads and fish the crystal clear waters of the Clark Fork and her tributaries. Deer Lodge and Powell County offers you a vacation you will never forget!
Deer Lodge is on Interstate 90 between Butte and Missoula.

The delight you can have in Deer Lodge and Powell County is inexhaustible - museums, hiking, riding, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, fishing, hunting, pack trips, golfing, and photography at their very best. Ours is a magical land of "Big Sky", primeval forest, gleaming mountaintops and abundant wildlife!

Deer Lodge is nestled in a broad valley between the Continental Divide and the Flint Creek Mountain Range. It is a meadowland surrounded on the east and the west by mountain ranges. The mountains contain isolated mineral deposits. Mount Powell dominates the western skyline from down town Deer Lodge.

Deer Lodge earned it's name from a thermal spring that gave off large amounts of vapor and built up a cone almost 40 feet high. From a distance the cone and vapor resembled an Indian lodge with smoke rising from it. Deer often frequented the area; thus, the name Deer Lodge.

In the 1850s Johnny Grant settled in the Deer Lodge Valley and established the first ranch.  Deer Lodge was a trading and trapping center, and mountain men and Indians frequented this land during this time.

Here’s an early mining town that didn’t die, but turned to other pursuits. Float gold was discovered in 1852 on what is now Gold Creek. The location of this first discovery of gold in Montana is about twenty miles north of the City of Deer Lodge. When the first strikes on Gold Creek started the excitement this camp was known as Cottonwood, LaBarge, and Spanish Forks. Investors began building mills to extract the silver and gold from the quartz. One such builder was named William Andrews Clark, who became one of the three richest men in Montana.  Mr. Clark built his home in the 1860s in Deer Lodge at what is now 311 Clark Avenue.

Bearded miners and the cowmen of the Texas longhorn days transacted their business and enjoyed their lusty pleasures here.  A county seat since 1864, Deer Lodge is the business and banking center of the Deer Lodge Valley. Conrad Kohrs purchased the Johnny Grant ranch in 1866.  Mr. Kohrs, a butcher's assistant, turned the ranch into one of the largest cattle operations in the nation.  This ranch is now a US national historical site.

During the 1880s the area mines became one of the world’s greatest copper producers.

The Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1883 and Deer Lodge was the end of the line for immigrants heading west.

Relive some of this history in Deer Lodge. There are more museums and historical collections to be found here than in any other town in the Northwest.  In the summer, a free, horse-drawn trolley will carry you from site to site throughout the town. You’ll enjoy restaurants, art galleries, antique shops, gift shops in the historical ambiance of Deer Lodge.

Today, beautiful homes and tree shaded lawns reflect a home life enviable in this day of big city stress and strife. Many churches, excellent elementary and high school systems, and a progressive business community enhance the balanced and healthy lifestyle enjoyed by our citizens.