Dillon is the county seat and major trading area for over 13,000 people in Beaverhead and western Madison counties. It is the headquarters of the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest, the Dillon Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, the University of Montana-Western and the national franchise office of Great Harvest Bread Company.

Several major highways, including I-15, join at Dillon, forming a natural shopping area.

Dillon also forms the center of Montana's largest cattle and hay producing areas, and is one of Montana's top agricultural centers.

With a total population of 9,000 in Beaverhead County, and nearly 6,000 in Madison County, the area provides an effective buying income of over $150 million annually.

Agriculture, minerals, timber, education, retail sales, national franchising, recreation, tourism and government form the major industries of the area.

 

Make Southwestern Montana your recreation destination and you will never find yourself at a loss for things to do!

From historic, ghostly Bannack, Montana's first territorial capital and the West's best preserved ghost town, to restored and fun-filled Virginia and Nevada Cities, the glory of the old West is alive and well here.

Dillon is the headquarters for the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest, with dozens of mountain lakes, great fishing rivers and streams, and wildlife in every nook and cranny.

Explore hundreds of miles of hiking and snowmobile trails, dig for crystals, visit ghost towns and drop a line in the West's best fisheries... the Madison, the Beaverhead and the Big Hole.

Then come on back and enjoy the hospitality of great restaurants and hostelries.

It's all right here where the Old West began, Dillon and southwestern Montana!

 

Agriculture is the backbone of southwestern Montana's economy. Here is where the most cattle and most hay are raised in the entire state.

And here is where the heart of Montana's sheep industry still thrives.

LaCense Ranch, near Dillon, is internationally famous for its special "horse whispering" style of horse training. Each year horsemen and women from around the world come to Dillon to learn their secrets.

And as you drive through southwestern Montana, you're apt to see a strange wooden contraption sitting out in the field... the beaverslide. Developed in the Big Hole Valley of southwestern Montana, the beaverslide is the traditional way of stacking hay here.