Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument preserves three hundred seventy-seven thousand acres of north-central Montana along the Missouri Breaks, where badlands, bluffs, plains, and the river corridor create a rugged landscape that remains much as Lewis and Clark saw it in 1805. Long used by Native peoples, the region later saw French trappers, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, peace councils at the Judith-Missouri confluence, and the Nez Perce crossing in 1877 before the Cow Island Skirmish. Created in 2001, the monument is valued for its visible frontier history, diverse wildlife habitats, and relatively intact scenery, even as grazing, private inholdings, and preservation laws have shaped its management.

Montana · United States