Where Does Eastern Montana Start?

Montana is in many ways a land of two halves: a western Montana of snow-capped mountains and national forests joined in political unity with an eastern Montana of wide-open plains and flatland agriculture.

It’s a time-honored divide: peaks versus plains, Missoula versus Miles City, Flathead versus Fort Peck lakes. But where exactly is the dividing line?

As it turns out, there’s no clear point of consensus — at least according to an MTFP- Eagleton poll conducted this winter, which asked about that crucial geography question alongside inquiries about weighty issues including opinions of the president’s immigration policy and support for a statewide sales tax.

None of the options we presented as eastern Montana’s official starting point — ranging from the Continental Divide to the city of Billings — garnered approval from more than a third of respondents. Billings was the closest, at 31 percent.

Next up was the Continental Divide, which snakes along mountain ranges from just south of the state’s western “nose,” before passing west of Butte, east of Helena and northward through Glacier National Park. That’s Montana’s portion, of course, of the hemispheric Continental Divide, which extends from the Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska to the Strait of Magellan in Chile.

Nearly a fifth of Montanans, 18 percent, named the Divide the best dividing line on our list. That would place the state capital of Helena, in eastern Montana alongside Dillon and Havre.

Other respondents split among points between the Divide and Billings: Bozeman, Great Falls, Livingston and Lewistown. None of those options garnered more than 12 percent support.

A few others cheekily declined to pick one of the options on our list, offering their own descriptions instead.

One respondent said eastern Montana is “the mostly flat part.” A few others cited the Rocky Mountain Front, where the mountains meet plains — most prominently to the west of Great Falls.

Others named extremes: The North Dakota state line in one case (i.e., Montana’s eastern border). Lincoln County in another.

For the record: Lincoln County, where Libby is the county seat, is nestled up against Idaho in Montana’s Northwest corner — a definition that would put Kalispell and Missoula in eastern Montana.