Welcome to the Divide Montana Picture Tour

Just like the towns of Monida, Lima, Dillon and Melrose,  Divide, Montana owes its initial growth to the Union Pacific Railroad.  The community sits at the mouth of the Big Hole Valley, where it served as a distribution and stock shipping point for ranchers in the Big Hole Valley. Today the town serves as a jump off site for recreation opportunities such as the Humbug Spires Wilderness Study Area to the east, Fly fishing on the world famous Big Hole River, elk hunting in the Pioneer Mountains and picturesque log cabins for the photography buffs.

Why Make a Tour Of Divide?

People ask why do we photograph and post tours of the tiny Montana towns? We reply that unfortunately, most of the towns don’t sell pizza or have a replacement battery for your FitBit, so they receive little or no attention from the Search Engines. Almost all of the Montana towns we feature on the MontanaPictures.Net website have a sentimental attachment for us. The towns are the birthplace of former classmates, co-workers, friends and family.  We go out of our way to photograph the town in the best possible sunlight during the prettiest time of year so folks can see quality pictures of home, no matter where they are.

Where’s Dinner?

Divide, Montana is a good example of a Montana town that means a lot to us.  Riding down to the Big Hole River meant catching lots of trout and hearing lots of family stories from my dad and grandparents about growing up in Butte.  As a kid, my dad would hitch hike the 20 miles from Butte, Montana to Divide (it was up hill both ways) to catch his limit on the Big Hole River. His fishing trip wasn’t just for sport, he was responsible for providing the trout for that night’s dinner menu. Later he worked summers cutting hay on a ranch rear Divide but that is another story.

Big Hole Pump Station

Built in 1899 by the Butte Water Company, the Big Hole Pump Station pumps over 15 million gallons a day over the Continental Divide to Butte and the surrounding areas.

Southern Montana Railway

From the Powerhouse Fishing Access lot you can see the remains of the Montana Southern Railway (1917–1940). Completed in 1919, the narrow gauge track began in Divide, Montana then followed the Big Hole River upstream to the maintenance shops in Wise River, Montana.   From Wise River, the track turned south to the remote silver mining camp of Coolidge, Montana in the Pioneer Mountains. When profits from the Coolidge silver mines declined in the 1920s, the railroad followed suit.  The railroad sat mostly idle after about 1933, and the tracks were finally removed in 1940.