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Office: Granite County Disaster & Emergency Services (DES) – 220 N. Sansome Street, PO Box 925, Philipsburg, MT 59858 | (406) 859-3771; the county has maintained an Enhanced 911 system with GIS/GPS mapping and addressing for over 25 years, including a Public GIS Viewer available to residents, title companies, real estate agents, and delivery services.
Sheriff: Granite County Sheriff & Coroner’s Office – PO Box 188, Philipsburg, MT 59858 | (406) 859-3251 | Fax: (406) 859-3252; Sheriff Rico Barkell. Duties include acting as executive officer of the county/district courts, serving writs, and supervising the county jail.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: MT-1 (Pintler Scenic Route) serves Philipsburg, the county seat, in southwest Montana halfway between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
Notes: Granite County is a former silver-mining region that has reinvented itself around tourism since the early 1990s.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Granite County – confirm current phone via granitecountymt.gov.
Notes: Philipsburg is genuinely a nationally recognized small-town revival success story – Sunset Magazine named it winner of a 2015 Sunset Travel Award for “Best Municipal Makeover and Reinvention.” Landmarks include the Sweet Palace, a 3,000-square-foot Victorian-style candy emporium with over a thousand candy selections; the Sapphire Gallery, where visitors can pan bags of local gravel guaranteed to contain a genuine Montana sapphire from the nearby Rock Creek mines; the Philipsburg Theater (built 1891), Montana’s oldest continuously operating theater/opera house; and Philipsburg Brewing Company, housed in an 1888 former bank building known as “The Vault.” The Granite County Jail (1896), NRHP-listed, remained in active use as late as 1980. Granite Ghost Town, a former silver boomtown, sits about four miles up a seasonal mountain road.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Granite County Veterans Service – confirm current contact via granitecountymt.gov.
Federal: VA Montana Health Care System (Fort Harrison/Helena, accessible north).
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Philipsburg Public Library – located on Philipsburg’s historic Broadway Street; confirm current phone/hours via granitecountymt.gov.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Georgetown Lake (fishing, boating, ice fishing), Discovery Ski Area, the Sapphire Gallery, Granite Ghost Town, and the Granite County Museum & Cultural Center (mining and homestead history) are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine sapphire mining heritage and Montana’s-oldest-operating-theater status of the Philipsburg Theater are distinctive local facts.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Public GIS Viewer – Granite County’s public-facing GIS mapping tool, developed with MaPS, Inc. and CivicLens; accessible via granitecountymt.gov for parcel/address verification.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current animal control arrangements via granitecountymt.gov or the Sheriff & Coroner’s Office, (406) 859-3251.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Granite County – confirm current contact via granitecountymt.gov.
NOTES: Granite County is the seventh and final county in the Montana v2 A+ sourced redo’s third batch (Fergus, Flathead, Gallatin, Garfield, Glacier, Golden Valley, Granite) – closing out this batch. The genuine sapphire mining heritage and small-town revival story of Philipsburg are distinctive local facts. 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 Granite County County
Granite County is southwest Montana’s silver mining Victorian town and Georgetown Lake county – Philipsburg’s remarkable preservation of the 1880s silver boom character and Georgetown Lake’s exceptional trout fishing define a mountain county where Philipsburg serves the surrounding Flint Creek Valley and Pintler Wilderness communities.
Philipsburg (the county seat, population ~900) is Granite County’s governmental hub on MT-1, a southwest Montana mountain community whose Victorian silver mining heritage, Georgetown Lake access, and Pintler Wilderness setting anchor its identity as one of Montana’s most charming small towns.
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Granite County Assessor at 220 N. Sansome Street, Philipsburg, MT 59858, phone 406-859-3817. MT assessed at market value.
Courts & Legal
Granite County District Court at 220 N. Sansome Street, Philipsburg, MT 59858, phone 406-859-3817, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK AND RECORDER
220 N. Sansome St., Philipsburg, MT 59858
(406) 859-3817
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
220 N. Sansome St., Philipsburg, MT 59858
(406) 859-3817
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Granite County Clerk of District Court (probate case files – see Probate section above).
The Granite County Jail (built 1896), NRHP-listed, is a significant local landmark.
Local societies
No dedicated Granite 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
Granite County Clerk of District Court, Probate Division 220 N. Sansome Street, Philipsburg, MT 59858 (406) 859-3712
Granite County was founded March 2, 1893, named for a mountain containing the Granite Mountain silver mine, in southwestern Montana, seated in Philipsburg.
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
220 N. Sansome St., Philipsburg, MT 59858
(406) 859-3777
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
220 N. Sansome St., Philipsburg, MT 59858
(406) 859-3817
ELECTIONS
220 N. Sansome St., Philipsburg, MT 59858
(406) 859-3817
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
MT DPHHS — Granite
(406) 859-3817
Community Hospital of Anaconda
communityhosp.net (Anaconda — accessible)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Granite County Public Health Office / Public Health Emergency Preparedness – confirm current phone via granitecountymt.gov.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Philipsburg
Population: 3,400
Area: 1,727 sq mi
Established: 1893
Public Records
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