Billings, Montana

Billings was founded in 1877 by agents of the Northern Pacific Railroad. When they incorporated the town in 1882, they named the settlement for Frederick H. Billings, then president of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Today, Billings is the largest city in Montana and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Billings was recently ranked by BestLife Magazine as the third best place in America to raise a family.

Some of the pictographs found 6 miles south of Billings at Pictograph Cave show that this area has been inhabited for more than 2,000 years. When the Lewis & Clark Expedition came through this area in 1806, the Crow Indians had frequented this countryside for more than 100 years. There is evidence the Cheyenne and Sioux were here even earlier than the Crows.

Anyway, Billings was founded several miles west of the already-existing town of Coulson. This was a good location beside the Yellowstone River for the freight business that was brought upstream by the paddle-wheel steamers. At this point, the freight left the ships and traveled by train to its destination(s).

Billings grew steadily in those early years but really began to boom after World War II when the city became the primary cultural, commercial, retail, financial and medical center in the northern Rocky Mountain region.