County Past
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Chouteau County, Montana

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
21historic places
—earliest paper
1864formed
5,895pop. 2020
14cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 21 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Fort Benton, Geraldine, Square Butte.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Montana is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Chouteau titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

15 of 21 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

21 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Baker, I. G., HouseFort BentonBuilding1980
Chouteau County CourthouseFort BentonBuilding1980
Citadel RockFort BentonSite1974
Eagle Butte SchoolFort BentonBuilding2009
First National Bank of GeraldineGeraldineBuilding2008
Fort Benton NHLFort BentonDistrict1966
Fort Benton BridgeFort BentonStructure1980
Fort Benton Engine HouseFort BentonBuilding1980
Geraldine Milwaukee DepotGeraldineBuilding1997
Grand Union HotelFort BentonBuilding1976
Judith Landing Historic DistrictWinifredDistrict1975
Lewis and Clark Camp at Slaughter RiverBig SandySite1974
LonetreeGeraldineBuilding1980
Masonic BuildingFort BentonBuilding1980
Shonkin Creek BridgeGeraldineStructure2012
Square Butte JailSquare ButteBuilding1998
Square Butte SchoolSquare ButteBuilding2013
St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchFort BentonBuilding1980
Teton River Crossing on the Whoop-Up TrailCarterSite1993
Virgelle Mercantile and Virgelle State BankVirgelleBuilding1997
West Quincy Granite QuarrySquare ButteSite2000

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Chouteau was formed in 1864 (1864-01-16) from unknown / original county.

CHOTEAU (now CHOUTEAU) created by Idaho Territory from non-county area.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Chouteau County population from 1870 to 2020 (Census historical series).

17k8,8545171870188019201950196020002020
1870188019001920194019501960198020002020
5173,05810,96611,0517,3166,9747,3486,0925,9705,895

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

14 cemeteries and 13 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 14 of 14 listed
NameLatLon
Big Sandy Cemetery48.17997-110.12214
Carter Cemetery47.78552-110.96105
Clear Lake Cemetery47.77316-110.25248
Geraldine Cemetery47.59497-110.2563
German Baptist Church Cemetery47.93607-111.34496
Graceville Cemetery47.75053-110.08824
Kenilworth Cemetery48.21914-110.41965
Knees Community Church Cemetery47.98746-111.36207
Montague Cemetery47.67858-110.46603
Riverside Cemetery47.83885-110.64242
Sample Flat Cemetery48.01768-111.12356
Square Butte Bench Cemetery47.55386-110.04546
Upper Highwood Cemetery47.50913-110.68882
Upper Shonkin Cemetery47.52163-110.57683
Historical populated places — 13 of 13
NameLatLon
Ashmoor48.0633-111.32581
Aznoe47.9583-111.32386
Colony Bay48.03053-110.61244
Eskay47.82998-109.63602
Genou48.00135-111.25914
Hopp47.90109-109.88742
Inga48.10414-110.33132
Lonesome Prairie48.24442-110.26743
Lonetree47.54164-110.28409
Ophir47.93192-110.47299
Patterson47.64553-110.56604
Pleasant Valley47.94997-110.68411
Russell48.06386-111.0633

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Chouteau County, Montana

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.