Custer Country

Custer Country covers the southeastern quarter of Montana, the broad plains-and-badlands country running from Billings east to the North Dakota line and south to Wyoming. The terrain is the high northern plains — short-grass prairie, the Yellowstone River valley cutting east, the Pryor and Bighorn mountains rising along the southern edge, and the rugged badlands of Makoshika State Park near Glendive. Thirteen counties cover the region. Yellowstone holds Billings, the largest city in Montana; Custer holds Miles City and the Bucking Horse Sale; Dawson holds Glendive; Big Horn holds Hardin and the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Custer’s Last Stand); Rosebud holds Forsyth and Colstrip; Powder River holds Broadus. Pompeys Pillar National Monument (with Captain Clark’s 1806 signature, the only physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition) sits east of Billings; Makoshika State Park covers Montana’s largest stretch of badlands. Most trips here run history-and-plains focused. Little Bighorn Battlefield draws the largest single visitor stream; Pompeys Pillar handles the Lewis and Clark crowd; Miles City’s Bucking Horse Sale each May runs the rodeo-and-cowboy circuit; Billings anchors a multi-day urban itinerary with the Western Heritage Center and the Yellowstone Art Museum.