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D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 6
article and photos by BRYAN SPELLMAN
G E T T O K N O W G E T T O K N O W
A C O U N T Y A C O U N T Y
W I B A U X C O U N T Y W I B A U X C O U N T Y
O
N MONTANA'S FAR EASTERN EDGE, WI-
BAUX COUNTY IS EASY TO CROSS QUICK-
LY (INTERSTATE 94 TAKES JUST 14 MILES
TO CROSS THE COUNTY EAST TO WEST) BUT IT
IS WELL WORTH SLOWING DOWN FOR. A place
of shortgrass prairie, coulees, gumbo roads, and
cattle history, the county and its seat still carry the
name of one of the most colorful stockmen ever to
work the northern plains.
Created on August 17, 1914, from parts of Dawson, Fallon, and
Richland counties, the county is named for Pierre Wibaux, the
French-born cattleman whose operations helped make the area
an important center of the open-range cattle business. At about
889 square miles, Wibaux is third smallest of Montana's coun-
ties by land area. Only Deer Lodge and Silver Bow are smaller.
Its 2020 census population was 937, and the Census Bureau's
2025 estimate places it at 885 residents—53rd among Montana's
56 counties. The county seat is Wibaux, the county's only in-
corporated town, and Montana license plates identify Wibaux
County as number 52.
Long before survey lines divided this corner of Montana into
counties, indeed before Montana existed, Indigenous people
used this country as part of the larger northern plains. The re-
gion lay within the world of bison, seasonal movement, trade,
hunting, and conflict among Plains peoples, including Lakota
(Sioux) and other groups whose presence long preceded Eu-
ro-American settlement.
WIBAUX
