Glasgow, Montana is a town of 3,572 (1990 census) located in the northeastern corner of the state. The town is built on the banks of the Milk River, and is located very near Fort Peck Lake, a major attraction for vacationers and locals alike. It covers only 809 acres, and so Glasgow is a tiny town by almost anyone's standards, yet a number of unique features make it quite interesting!
Glasgow is in the land where buffalo roamed the prairie west and is now the center of a vast cattle grazing region. It was first named in 1887 when the rails of Jim Hill's Great Northern Railway arrived, and became a county seat in 1893. Glasgow citizens celebrated their diamond jubilee in 1962 and in July, 1987, they marked their 100th year with a week long celebration.
Glasgow is relatively free of smog and fog, and has abundant sunshine, low relative humidity, moderate to extraordinarily strong winds, and a generally moderate climate (with occasional pronounced temperature extremes of -60f to +107f). Generally, the weather is very nice... but when it gets rough, it's best to be prepared! It doesn't rain a whole lot; Glasgow's 30-year average is 11.55 inches of rain per year, and in the last full decade, the average was only 9.54 inches. Normally, about 75% of the precipitation falls during the growing season of April through September, which the citizens of Glasgow deem quite convenient! Average snowfall is 28 inches and the greatest monthly average is 6.5 inches in January.
This map shows exactly where our home was when I was growing up. In reality, it wasn't really a ranch (only ~120 acres), but we did run about 10 head of cattle at one time, along with horses and other various farm animals. Just about everything except pigs and chickens.
