Ryegate ∙ Montana

RYEGATE, MONTANA                  

Native Americans shared the area as a joint hunting area filled with buffalo through-out the whole entire Musselshell valley.  Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce crossed the Musselshell at this location on September 17, 1877, on their way to Canada, 4 days after the Battle of Canyon Creek west of present-day Billings, Montana.

The Musselshell River was first named Muscle Shell River by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on May 21, 1805, from the freshwater mussels found at the confluence of the Missouri.

Ryegate has a population of 223 and was named from a field of rye on the Sims-Garfield Ranch.  It is situated in a sheltered spot below rims on the north and Musselshell River to the south.  The town was first settled in 1910 as a Milwaukee Railroad Town, incorporated in 1917 and named County seat of Golden Valley County in 1920 when the County was formed.  The hanging of W. L. Simpson, outside the courthouse, on December 30, 1939, was one of the last public Hangings in Montana.  Since 1980 the tracks and depot have been gone, but the old structures of the town still stand to tell the history of the area.

Situated between the Snowy Mountains to the north, Bull Mountains to the east, Beartooth Mountains to the south, Crazy Mountains, Castle Mountains and the Belt Mountains to the west you are only 2 hours away at most from skiing, hiking, camping, hunting, boating, fishing or trail riding.