Where does East meet West? (Billings, Great Falls: living, versus, island)

[MimzyMusic]

I think the border between eastern and western Montana is the Rocky Mountain Front. However, south of Great Falls where the Rocky Mountain Front IS is hard to say because of all the island ranges!

Great Falls is eastern Montana, Bozeman is western Montana, even though they're at about the same longitude.

Shelby is west of both of those and feels like eastern Montana. It's similar to Malta, Havre, Wolf Point, etc. Cut Bank is probably the west/east border in the north. Blackfeet Indian Reservation has a rugged Western Montana feel to it.

Driving between Helena and Great Falls, I feel one enters eastern Montana once they leave the mountains and reach the town of Cascade.

The Little Belt Mountains imo are an island range of eastern Montana; the Big Belt are a part of the western Rockies.

In the South, the border is probably around Red Lodge.

[Walter Greenspan]

A map of Montana may be of some help in this discussion:

[mattman3seven]

IMO, if you can SEE the mountains, you are in Western MT! I would say that I-15 south th Great Falls, then 89 south to Livingston and then down to Yellowstone is the dividng line.

And Shelby does not feel like eastern MT! We're 1 hour from the mountains, and they can be seen clearly on a nice clear day!

[AndersonRM]

If you draw a line between Shelby and Billings you pretty closely divide the mountains from the plains.

[rickers]

Originally Posted by MimzyMusic

Great Falls is eastern Montana

For someone who seems extremely obsessed with geography you should know that Montana isn't just divided by east versus west. It would appear that you either have never been to Montana or you just passed through once. If you asked anyone in Great Falls if they live in eastern Montana I would bet you would get a few sidewards glances ! Great Falls is considered to be in either central or north central Montana.