Broadwater County, Montana

Overview

Broadwater County is a small, Missouri River-centered county in west-central Montana, anchored by Townsend at the southern end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir. The county sits between Helena to the northwest and the Gallatin Valley to the south, hugging the Missouri River as it flows north toward the Great Falls reach. Agriculture here centers on irrigated hay production along the Missouri and Crow Creek bottomlands, with cow-calf ranching on surrounding benchlands and in the Big Belt and Elkhorn mountain foothills. The Canyon Ferry Unit of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program provides reliable irrigation water to a substantial share of the county’s cropland.

Weather & Moisture

Broadwater County’s water picture is dominated by the Missouri River — regulated by Canyon Ferry Dam at the county’s northern end — plus Crow Creek and smaller tributaries from the Elkhorn Mountains. The county has no NRCS SNOTEL stations within its borders; upstream snowpack at Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin headwaters drives Missouri River flows through Toston and Canyon Ferry. The USGS gauge at Missouri River near Toston is in-county and captures regulated flow responding to upstream snowmelt and Canyon Ferry releases.

Water Rights & Land Ownership

Water rights in Broadwater County run with the Missouri River mainstem and with the Canyon Ferry Project (Bureau of Reclamation), which delivers stored water to irrigators through the Broadwater-Missouri Canal and related infrastructure. Crow Creek and other tributaries carry a mix of priority dates from the homesteading era. The Montana DNRC Water Rights Query System (WRQS) and Montana Cadastral are the primary tools for parcel-level research.

Hay & Winter Feed

Irrigated alfalfa and grass hay along the Missouri River bottoms and the Canyon Ferry-served areas are Broadwater County’s primary feed base. Proximity to the Helena and Bozeman markets gives producers reasonable pricing access when regional drought tightens supply.

Cattle Production

Broadwater County supports a smaller cow-calf base than its larger neighbors, with operations concentrated along the Missouri Valley and in the Big Belt and Elkhorn foothills. Fall-weaned calves typically move through the Helena Livestock Auction or the Bozeman-area video sales, or ship directly to backgrounders in adjacent counties.

County Logistics

Townsend sits on US-12 / US-287 approximately 35 miles southeast of Helena and 65 miles north of Bozeman. US-287 is the primary north-south route, connecting Townsend to the I-90 corridor at Three Forks (about 45 miles south) and to Helena’s I-15 junction. Trucking to Billings runs approximately 3.5 hours via I-90.

Data Sources

• USDA NRCS National Water and Climate Center — upstream SNOTEL (no in-county stations)
• USDA Drought Monitor — weekly county drought classification
• USGS Water Services — Missouri River at Toston (06054500) daily discharge
• Montana Mesonet (UMT) — soil moisture (Toston, Toston SW2)
• NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance — county precipitation anomaly (1/3/12 month)
• USDA NASS — county cattle inventory and agricultural census