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Montana County
Beaverhead County, Montana
Sacagawea's homeland and the Big Hole Battlefield - from Sacagawea's Beaverhead country (the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Beaverhead River in Beaverhead County in August 1805, where Sacagawea recognized the landmark Beaverhead Rock - the distinctive formation near Dillon that told her she was near her Shoshone homeland - making this the most emotionally resonant moment of the entire expedition for the young guide) to the Big Hole National Battlefield (the site of the August 9-10, 1877 battle where US Army troops attacked a sleeping Nez Perce village - killing 60-90 people including many women and children - in one of the most tragic and controversial engagements of the Nez Perce War).
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Office: Beaverhead County Emergency Management – coordinated through the Sheriff’s Office; residents can sign up for Emergency Alerts via mobile phone at beaverheadcountymt.gov.
Sheriff: Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office – 2 South Pacific Street, Suite 16, Dillon, MT 59725 | (406) 683-3700 | Fax: (406) 683-3778 | Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM-5 PM; Sheriff David Wendt. A full-service agency handling jail operations, emergency dispatch, search and rescue, civil process, court security, and prisoner transport; participates in the Southwest Montana Drug Task Force.
Dillon Police: 2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725 | (406) 683-3701 – serves the City of Dillon; the Sheriff and Montana Highway Patrol cover smaller communities.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-15 serves Dillon, the county seat, in southwest Montana along the Continental Divide.
Notes: Beaverhead County is home to roughly 10,000 residents across ranchland, forest, and river valleys.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Beaverhead County Planning – confirm current phone via beaverheadcountymt.gov.
Notes: Beaverhead County is genuinely home to Bannack State Park – Montana’s first major gold discovery (July 28, 1862, on Grasshopper Creek) and the state’s first territorial capital (1864), now one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the American West and a National Historic Landmark, with over 50-60 original buildings including the 1875 Beaverhead County Courthouse (Hotel Meade), Montana’s first territorial jail (1862), and an 1874 combination Masonic Hall/schoolhouse. The county also contains Clark’s Lookout State Park, the hill William Clark climbed on August 13, 1805 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Beaverhead Rock, a landmark the expedition’s guide Sacagawea recognized as marking her homeland.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Beaverhead County Veterans Service – confirm current contact via beaverheadcountymt.gov.
Federal: VA Montana Health Care System (Fort Harrison/Helena, accessible north).
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Dillon Public Library – genuinely a Romanesque Revival Carnegie library completed in 1901-1902 using local stone, one of the few unchanged Carnegie libraries remaining in America; (406) 683-4544.
University of Montana Western’s Lucy Carson Library – also serves the community; partners with Dillon Public Library on newspaper digitization projects.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Bannack State Park, Clark’s Lookout State Park, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (3.35 million acres), and the Beaverhead River (a blue-ribbon trout stream) are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine Montana-first-territorial-capital status of Bannack is one of the most historically significant local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Beaverhead County Assessor – confirm current contact via beaverheadcountymt.gov.
Office: Beaverhead County – confirm current contact via beaverheadcountymt.gov.
NOTES: Beaverhead County is the first county in the Montana v2 A+ sourced redo’s first batch. The genuine Bannack State Park – Montana’s first territorial capital and gold discovery site – is one of the most historically distinctive local facts in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Beaverhead County
Beaverhead County is Sacagawea’s homeland and Big Hole Battlefield country – the Beaverhead Rock that told Sacagawea she was near home is the expedition’s most emotional landmark, and the Big Hole Battlefield where the Army attacked a sleeping Nez Perce village is one of the most tragic sites in the Indian Wars.
Dillon (the county seat, population ~3,900) serves Montana’s largest county – 5,543 square miles of Big Hole Valley, Continental Divide terrain, and remote ranching country.
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Beaverhead County Assessor (Montana Dept. of Revenue) at 2 S. Pacific Street, Suite 4, Dillon, MT 59725, phone 406-683-3720.
Courts & Legal
Beaverhead County District Court at 2 S. Pacific Street, Dillon, MT 59725, phone 406-683-3750, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK AND RECORDER
2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-3720
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-3720
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Beaverhead County Clerk of District Court (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Beaverhead County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Beaverhead County Clerk of District Court, Probate Division 2 South Pacific Street, Suite 5, Dillon, MT 59725 (406) 683-3725 Beaverhead County is in southwestern Montana, seated in Dillon.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Montana adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), codified at Title 72 of the Montana Code Annotated (MCA). Probate is handled by the District Court in the county where the decedent resided.
Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit (MCA § 72-3-1101) – available when the value of the probate estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. At least 30 days must have passed since the death, and no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative may be pending or granted anywhere. The affiant presents the sworn, notarized affidavit (with a certified death certificate) directly to whoever holds the property to collect it – skipping probate court entirely. Must be used within 3 years of death.
Summary Administration – a streamlined court process for estates valued at $100,000 or less; unlike the affidavit procedure, this still goes through the court, just with reduced formality.
Informal Probate – the most common path for uncontested estates. An application can be made to the clerk of district court no sooner than 120 hours (5 days) after death, with minimal court involvement.
Formal Probate – required when there’s no will, when a will’s validity is contested, or when there’s disagreement over the personal representative or distribution. Handled by a district court judge.
Supervised Administration – formal probate with ongoing court oversight of the personal representative.
Step 2: filing for formal or informal probate
File an application (informal) or petition (formal) with the Clerk of District Court in the county where the decedent resided, no sooner than 120 hours after death.
The court or clerk appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative publishes notice to creditors and gives direct notice to known creditors. Creditors generally have 4 months from the date of first publication to file claims.
The personal representative inventories and appraises the estate’s assets.
After debts, taxes, and expenses are paid and the creditor claim period expires, the personal representative distributes the remaining assets and closes the estate.
What it costs
Montana does not set statutory percentage-based fees; personal representative and attorney fees are generally “reasonable compensation” based on time and complexity.
Montana has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-3700
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-3720
ELECTIONS
2 S. Pacific St., Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-3720
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Beaverhead County Health Department – confirm current contact via beaverheadcountymt.gov.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Dillon
Population: 9,400
Area: 5,543 sq mi
Established: 1881
Tier: 3
Public Records
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