TOWNSEND, Montana Community Information

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  Downtown

  Photo courtesy: Townsend Chamber

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  Canyon Ferry

  Photo courtesy: Townsend Chamber

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  Canton Church

  Photo courtesy: MTOT

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  Local Businesses

  Photo courtesy: John Ansotegui

Townsend is a county seat advantageously "surrounded by the grandeur of the great Missouri River and its valley" and under the protection of the Big Belt Mountains.

The first passenger train to travel from St. Paul to Portland (September 1883) stopped at Townsend. The town had been laid out and developed in anticipation of the coming of the railroad, and it was named by railroad officials, reportedly in honor or the wife of Charles B. Wright, president of the Northern Pacific 1874-1879—her maiden name was Townsend. A $10 thousand hotel, the Townsend House, was built. Town lots sold for $5 apiece and pioneer families built fine houses, giving the new town a dignity that it has maintained throughout the years. Agriculture gradually replaced the railroad as the dominant economic factor. (from Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)

Townsend is in great hunting country. Visit the Chamber of Commerce for information and maps for self-guided tours through historic mining and scenic areas in the nearby Elkhorn and Big Belt Mountains.