Water Rights

← Park County, Montana

Water Rights & Land Ownership

This page brings together two essential public tools for understanding land and water in Park County: the Montana DNRC Water Rights Query System (WRQS) and the Montana Cadastral land ownership database. Together, they let you search water rights by owner or source, view parcel boundaries and ownership on a map, and connect the two — every parcel in the Cadastral carries a 17-digit geocode that links directly to water rights in the DNRC database.

Park County spans 2,813 square miles of the upper Yellowstone River corridor and Shields Valley, with approximately 6,200 active water rights. The vast majority are allocated for irrigation, supporting hay meadows and stock operations that depend on snowmelt from the Absaroka, Gallatin, and Crazy mountain ranges. Montana operates under the prior appropriation doctrine — “first in time, first in right” — and many senior rights here date to the 1870s–1890s.

How these tools work together

The workflow for researching water on a property is straightforward:

1. Find your parcel in the Cadastral map below — search by owner name, address, or zoom to the location and click the parcel. Note the 17-digit geocode shown in the parcel details.
2. Search water rights using the WRQS search tool on this page — select “By geocode / PLSS,” paste the geocode, and click “Search WRQS.” This opens the state database filtered to all water rights attached to that parcel.
3. View on the map — the interactive watershed map between these tools shows where major diversions, rivers, and irrigation areas are located across Park County, so you can see the broader context for any property.

Montana Cadastral — Park County Parcels & Land Ownership

The Montana Cadastral is the state’s official parcel mapping system, maintained by the Montana State Library and Department of Revenue. Every parcel in Park County is mapped with owner names, addresses, assessed values, agricultural use classifications, tax districts, and geocodes. Public land (USFS, BLM, state trust) appears as larger unsubdivided parcels. Search by owner name, geocode, or address in the top-left search bar, or click any parcel on the map to view its details.

What the Cadastral tells ranchers

• Parcel boundaries & ownership — verify legal descriptions and current owners when buying, selling, or leasing ranch land
• Agricultural classification — the Department of Revenue classifies land by use (irrigated cropland, dryland hay, grazing, forest) which directly affects property tax assessments
• Public land adjacency — identify USFS and BLM land bordering your operation, critical for grazing allotments and forest access
• Geocode → water rights — every parcel’s 17-digit geocode links to the DNRC water rights database. This is the fastest way to find all water rights attached to a property

Water Rights Map & Search

The interactive map below shows major points of diversion, rivers, tributaries, and irrigation areas across Park County. The map covers the entire county — from Gardiner and Yellowstone National Park in the south, through Paradise Valley, past Livingston and the I-90 corridor, north to Wilsall and the Crazy Mountains, and east toward Springdale. Click any diversion point (colored dot) for details including the type of use, water source, and priority date. Below the map, the search tools connect directly to the Montana DNRC’s Water Rights Query System (WRQS) and WaterMapper.

Quick links

• Montana Cadastral (full screen) — Montana State Library parcel & ownership database
• WRQS — Montana DNRC Water Rights Query System
• WaterMapper — DNRC interactive GIS map of diversions, ditches & waterways
• GWIC Mapper — Montana Bureau of Mines groundwater wells & well logs
• Park County GIS — County atlas, zoning, rural addressing

Data Sources

• Montana State Library / MT Department of Revenue (Cadastral & ORION database)
• Montana DNRC Water Rights Database
• DNRC Water Rights Query System (WRQS)
• DNRC WaterMapper / ArcGIS
• Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology (GWIC)