S Montana's Vitals
		Population and General Information South Central Montana is one of the most desirable areas of Montana. Billings, the largest city in Montana, is only 60 miles away and is rated to be one of the top 10 cities in the country regarding solid economics, substantial job growth, good schools, recreation and cultural events. The current population figure for Red Lodge is approximately 2,200 and for all of Carbon County is about 10,000. But we have many residents in this particular area that are not included in this count, who just live here part of the year, either to go skiing in winter on Red Lodge Mountain or to enjoy the summer at one of our most scenic Highways in the country "Beartooth Highway" which leads to the Yellow Stone National Park. We do have a small airport in Red Lodge, which now has a full service maintenance and repair station "Beartooth Flight Center." They will soon offer flying lessons and they have a pilot's lounge, gift shop, etc.
		Geology The Beartooth Mountain Range is the highest in Montana with 30 peaks over 12,000 feet and 1,000 lakes, of which 487 are stocked with fish (by helicopter). There are almost one million acres of Wilderness Area. The mountain range used to be an ocean floor about 3.5 billion years ago and was then pushed up and even flipped over by another plate. The only sedimentary rocks left of the ocean floor are the Palisades sticking out of the trees around Red Lodge. The Beartooth (which is named after a pointed Rock you can see when you drive down the Beartooth Highway) Mountain Range had 4 ice caps in about 600,000 years intervals with glaciers carving the canyons over the last 2 million years or so. We have a terminal moraine sitting here not too far from Red Lodge and the canyon Red Lodge is nestled in, was carved by rushing waters as they left the glacier when it melted. The Absaroka mountain range, which is part of the Beartooth looks jagged and is mostly volcanic debris. The heart mountain in Cody supposedly got there by traveling at 70 miles an hour on a cloud of gas! Who said, mountains don't move?
		Cost of Living The average cost of living for the year 2001 was 98.8 - so it is a tad cheaper to live here, than in most of the US. Which comes in handy, since the average wages are also a tad below the US average… Also the unemployment in 2003 was 1% lower in Montana than the US average, here is the Montana breakdown by county, not seasonally adjusted UNITED STATES MONTANA Cascade (Great Falls) Missoula (Missoula) Yellowstone (Billings) Beaverhead (Dillon) Big Horn (Hardin) Blaine (Chinook) Broadwater (Townsend) Carbon (Red Lodge) Carter (Ekalaka) Chouteau (Fort Benton) Custer (Miles City) Daniels (Scoby) Dawson (Glendive) Deer Lodge (Anaconda) Fallon (Baker) Fergus (Lewistown) Flathead (Kalispell) Gallatin (Bozeman) Garfield (Jordan) Glacier (Cut Bank, Browning) Golden Valley (Ryegate) Granite (Phillipsburg) Hill (Havre) Jefferson (Boulder) Judith Basin (Stanford) Lake (Polson) Lewis & Clark (Helena) Liberty (Chester) Lincoln (Libby) McCone (Circle) Madison (Ennis) Meagher (White Sulphur Springs) Mineral (Superior) Musselshell (Roundup) Park (Livingston) Petroleum (Winnett) Phillips (Malta) Pondera (Conrad) Powder River (Broadus) Powell (Deer Lodge) Prairie (Terry) Ravalli (Hamilton) Richland (Sidney) Roosevelt (Wolfpoint) Rosebud (Forsyth Sanders (Thompson Falls) Sheridan (Plentywood) Silver Bow (Butte) Stillwater (Nye, Columbus) Sweet Grass (Big Timber) Teton (Chateau) Toole (Shelby) Treasure (Hysham) Valley (Glasgow) Wheatland (Harlowton) Wibaux (Wibaux) Jan. 2003 6.5% 5.7% 5.3% 5.0% 4.0% 4.8% 20.1% 6.9% 5.8% 5.0% 2.1% 3.3% 5.1% 3.3% 3.4% 7.5% 3.5% 7.9% 7.3% 3.1% 5.0% 12.1% 7.8% 8.2% 4.2% 5.0% 6.5% 8.4% 5.0% 4.0% 18.4% 4.3% 6.0% 8.0% 11.5% 8.6% 5.4% 7.9% 6.7% 4.9% 4.5% 6.6% 6.2% 7.0% 5.9% 7.9% 6.8% 10.1% 4.2% 6.1% 3.2% 2.9% 4.2% 2.4% 6.9% 4.2% 6.3% 3.5% Jan. 2004 6.3% 5.6% 5.2% 4.7% 4.0% 3.9% 14.9% 6.6% 6.1% 4.2% 2.3% 3.1% 5.1% 2.7% 4.1% 8.3% 2.6% 7.6% 8.1% 3.1% 3.1% 13.5% 10.0% 9.0% 4.2% 5.4% 6.7% 8.5% 4.8% 3.6% 15.6% 3.6% 5.6% 8.4% 10.7% 9.0% 5.4% 5.7% 6.6% 6.4% 6.5% 6.2% 8.9% 7.5% 3.6% 7.6% 6.8% 10.9% 4.8% 5.9% 3.4% 3.1% 4.5% 2.7% 5.1% 4.0% 5.5% 3.8% Billings   Bozeman Great Falls Helena Missoula Red Lodge Any of these weatherlinks will take you to the Wunderground Website. The weather link for Red Lodge below "Climate" is linked to the weather station at my office at the airport in Red Lodge.
		Average Wages Seasonally Adjusted Annual wages for the following industries: Nat Resources/Mining……… Information Other Services Manufacturing……………… Construction Financial Activities Prof/Business Services Leisure/Hospitality………… Educ*/Health Services Government Trade/Transp/Utilities Dec. 2002    6,300 7,800 16,300 18,900 22,500 19,700 32,400 51,100 52,100 83,000 84,900 Dec. 2003 6,500 7,500 16,100 18,100 23,100 20,200 32,000 51,900 52,900 83,800 85,400
		Major Employers and number of employees Red Lodge Ski/Golf/Dining. 208 seasonal Mountain Resort 60 year round Beartooth Hospital and Health Care 125 year round Rock Creek Resort 80 seasonal Beartooth IGA (Grocery Store) 35 year round I have posted a list of employers with full address and contact information for Billings - check the links in the left margin.
		Location Red Lodge is located just East and adjacent to the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 5,555 feet. This particular stretch of the Rockies is called the "Beartooth Wilderness" and "Beartooth Mountains." Red Lodge started out as a mining town and was settled by Europeans. After the mining operations stopped, the Beartooth Highway into the Yellowstone National Park was built and a ski area was developed on Red Lodge Mountain. Now we also have a golf course and downtown has been restored to it's historic beauty. Red Lodge also features some Victorian homes that are on the National Register of historic places and look quite stately. Red Lodge is located between the West Bench (which houses the airport and the golf course) and the East Bench. Rock Creek with lively trout and rolling boulders bubbles through town. South of town the Beartooth Highway starts to wind through the mountains and hidden on the hills and in the valleys are many new and old log homes.
		Climate Average annual precipitation 19 inches Average January Temperature 38.6 Fahrenheit Average April Temperature 55 Fahrenheit Average July Temperature 78 Fahrenheit Average October Temperature 56 Fahrenheit Click on this bar to see our local weather station in Red Lodge at the airport (my office)
		Tax Rates Montana has NO sales tax Personal Income tax rate is 1-6.9% Corporate Income Tax is 6.75% Accommodation "Bed" Tax Rate 4% Resort Tax Rate 3% (applies in Red Lodge) Personal Income Tax Schedule: $ 0 - 2,300 1% of net taxable income 2,300 - 4,100 2% minus $23 4,100 - 6,200 3% minus $64 6,200 - 8,400 4% minus $126 8,400 - 10,800 5% minus $210 10,800 - 13,900 6% minus $318 13,900 and up 6.9% minus $443
		Property Taxes Property taxes for residences in Montana do not have a simple formula. They are taxing the re-appraised increase from the year before differently. They are only taxing 16.66% of the increase. If the property falls under the homestead exemption, only 69% of the appraised value will be taxed. The taxable value after all of these calculations is 3.4% of the appraised value and the tax rate then is .425. Go figure :-) If your annual income is below $ 17,670 (single) or $ 23,560 (married) you can apply for exemptions. I could not find the form on the government website, so I put it on my website to download as a .pdf file Or you can get it at your local county offices. All other government forms can be found at the website of the Montana Department of Revenue
		Hunting To get a preferred license to hunt on your own property, you would need 160 acres to shoot deer and 640 acres to shoot elk, if these animals visit your property on a regular basis. You don't need a certain acreage to shoot predators. Non-residents owning land in Montana will not receive a preferred license. Preferred licenses are determined by a draw, since only 15% of the tags go to preferred landowners. The wolf is not classified as a predator yet, but they are thinking about it. If you need further details call the Billings enforcement agency at 406/247 2940 or 406/247 2949.
		Mineral Rights In Montana most of the time the mineral rights are held by the State, BLM (Bureau of Land Management - a federal agency), or some former owners down the line. There is probably very little danger of an oil well popping up in a subdivision... I would be concerned though if I would buy a large tract of land or ranch. . To do a mineral search in order to find out who actually owns the mineral rights on a property costs about $ 2,500. If they are scattered all about, you could attempt to buy them back from the various owners. There are large beds of Methane gas in South Eastern Montana and NE Wyoming. The mineral rights take precedence over land ownership, so you have very little to say if a company does lease the mineral rights from the government and they move their rigs in. The ranchers often benefit though, because the companies built roads to parts of their ranch that has not been accessible before and because it takes water to get the methane off the coal beds, they drill a lot of well which comes in handy for stock water. Many a rancher would have had to sell their herd during the last drought years, if it wouldn't have been for the wells drilled by the companies. About 50,000 wells have been drilled in the area mentioned along with 18,000 gas wells. There will about 2,500 gas wells added each year. Usually a compressor is also constructed to serve several wells and a of course a pipeline for the gas to be sold from the ranch. Because the rainfall in that area is around 9 inch per year, the top soil is very fragile and not much of it, so if someone is drilling wells on your land you want to be sure the topsoil and the immediate layer beneath are saved in different piles for restoration. The life of a gas well is 4 to 12 years, but some last longer. You might want to look at the webpage of the Resource Council. Also you might want to download the pdf file "Your Land your Rights."
		Soils If you are concerned about soils, we can look those up at the respective farm bureaus in each county. Every square inch is accounted for. I have the books here for Carbon County. They tell you how deep the soil is, what it consists of and what it will grow, how much water it can retain and all of that. If there is a snow cover and you would like to check out a farm or ranch, do it before it slips away from you. The main thing is to find out if you like the lay of the land, location, buildings and such. If you do, we can find out about the soils before you buy or make that a condition of the sale.
		What makes Montana tick? Wheat is Montana's leading crop in terms of sales. Most of the high-quality wheat is grown in the plains section, with winter wheat being grown mainly in the area north of Great Falls and spring wheat in the area bordering Canada. At the end of the 90's Montana ranked third among the states in wheat production, behind only North Dakota and Kansas. Other important grain crops include barley and oats. Montana trails only one other state, North Dakota, in the production of barley, Montana's third most valuable farm product. Hay is the fourth most valuable farm commodity and is grown throughout the state. Feed corn is raised in eastern Montana. Alfalfa, flaxseed, and mustard are also important crops. Sugar beets are raised on irrigated lands around Billings and Sidney. Potatoes are grown in many parts of the state, and truck gardens near the larger towns supply part of the local need for vegetables. Beans are raised in large quantity near Billings. Cherry orchards are found in the Flathead Lake region, and apples are grown primarily in the valleys of western and south central Montana. Cattle and calves play a central role in Montana's farm economy and are the second most valuable agricultural commodity. Beef cattle are raised in many parts of the state, while dairy is important in several western valleys. Some hogs are raised in the eastern areas. Montana raises a large number of sheep. Forest lands in Montana cover 25 percent of the state's area. Commercial timber grows mainly in the mountainous west and supplies Montana's chief industry, timber processing. Most of the lumber produced is softwood. Major species include the ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, western white pine, spruce, lodgepole pine, and western larch. The forests provide wood pulp for paper, lumber for construction, mine timbers, telephone and telegraph poles, railroad ties, and fuel. Montana is also a major producer of Christmas trees, harvested both in the wild and on plantations. Fuel resources, including petroleum, coal, and natural gas, are largely found in eastern Montana. Metallic minerals, including copper, silver, gold, lead, zinc, and tungsten, are found mainly in the western mountains. Nonmetallic minerals, including sand and gravel, limestone, phosphates, bentonite, fluorite, vermiculite, and gemstones are widely distributed, although more are found in the central and western regions. The extraction of fossil fuels provides the largest share of Montana's mining income. By far the most valuable fossil fuel is coal, which accounted for one-half of the state's total energy production value. The petroleum produced at the end of the 90's amounted to 14.9 million barrels. Production of natural gas remains important and totaled 1.7 billion cu m (61.2 billion cu ft) in 1999. Petroleum and natural gas deposits are found in several areas of the plains region, including the Bell Creek field in southeastern Montana, the Pine and Pennel fields in eastern Montana, and the Cut Bank field in the northwestern corner of Great Plains Montana. The major coal mines, located in south central Montana, are surface strip-mining operations that produce low-sulfur coal used for coal-fired electricity generation, especially in states in the Midwest. Metallic minerals provide the largest share of Montana's nonfuel mining income, with copper and gold leading the list of important metals. Most of the state's metallic mineral production comes from mines which began operation since the early 1980s. Such mines include those producing gold and silver located near Whitehall, east of Butte; at Jardine, north of Yellowstone National Park; and north of Lewistown. The state's largest producer of precious metals is a mine in Stillwater County near Nye that extracts platinum, palladium, rhodium, and gold. The processing plant for that mine is located in Columbus. Montana is the only U.S. state mining platinum and palladium its production of zinc intensified in the late 90's. After several years of absence, copper mining began again in 1986 at the historic mining town of Butte. Other relatively large mines were in various development stages in the mid-1990s. Portland cement is an important nonfuel mineral commodity. Montana leads the nation in the production of talc. Sand and gravel are obtained in all parts of the state. Phosphate rock is mined in several western and southwestern counties. Montana produces significant quantities of industrial-grade garnet. The principal manufactures in Montana are wood products, foodstuffs, printed matter, and electrical and electronic devices. In the late 1990s the lumber and wood products industry provided more than one-fourth of the state's income from manufactures. Lumber industries are concentrated in the mountainous west, where most of the commercial timber grows. Four large sawmills are situated at Bonner, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Libby. There are many small saw mills. Wood products are made in Missoula, Frenchtown, Libby, Kalispell, Thompson Falls, Whitefish, and Bonner. Most of Montana's lumber and wood products are sold in other states or exported to foreign countries. Food-processing plants provide about one-tenth of the manufacturing income in Montana. The plants are widely distributed in the state. Flour mills are located in Billings and Great Falls. Billings and Sidney have sugar refineries. Vegetable and fruit canneries are situated in the Bitterroot Valley. There are dairies throughout the state. The printing and publishing houses provide another one-tenth of Montana's manufacturing income. Large-scale metals processing is limited to two facilities, both of which process mostly ores produced in other countries. At Columbia Falls an aluminum reduction facility converts alumina from Australia and other countries to aluminum ingots. In East Helena a lead smelter processes ores mostly from South America. A number of other raw materials, especially building materials and fuels, are processed in Montana. Cement is produced at Trident and Montana City. Petroleum refineries are located in Billings, Laurel, and Great Falls. Montana's vast power resources include swiftly flowing rivers, as well as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. In 1999 some 60 percent of Montana's electricity was generated in power plants burning fossil fuels. Hydroelectric facilities were the other major source of power, providing 40 percent of the state's total electricity. The first important hydroelectric plant was built at Black Eagle Falls, on the Missouri River near Great Falls, in 1890. Red Lodge gets its power from a hydroelectric plant in the West Rosebud Canyon. Subscribe to my monthly Newsletter: Name E-mail: Click on this envelope to send me an email, I am looking forward to hearing from you!