The town born from a gold rush and a fallen president

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1865, a gold discovery and a national tragedy collided to create a community. Named in honor of the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, this remote Montana settlement sits at the crossroads of rugged wilderness and the nation's longest state highway.

The origins of Lincoln are rooted in the mid-1860s gold rush. To commemorate the slain president, David Culp and Thomas Patterson established a mining site called Abe Lincoln Gulch during 1865. The ensuing gold rush drew seekers to the mouth of the gulch, where they established a community they eventually abbreviated to 'Lincoln.' While the town faced several starts and stops, it finally secured a continuously operating post office in 1887.

The geography of the area is defined by the Blackfoot River valley. During 1806, Meriwether Lewis travelled across this territory via a 'River of the Road to the Buffalo' which Indigenous peoples had built many years earlier. By the early 20th century, the area became a commercial hub for logging, mining, and recreation. Today, it remains a gateway to nearby wilderness, situated at an elevation of 4,536 feet above sea level.

Lincoln serves as a point on Montana Highway 200, the longest state highway in the United States, which stretches 706.6 miles from Idaho to North Dakota. Despite its small population of 998 people as of the 2020 census, the town has a complex history, ranging from the 1996 arrest of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski to enduring extreme weather. The area borders a subarctic climate, where annual snowfall averages 85.4 inches and temperatures can drop significantly, with a recorded November low of -45 °F.

Geologically, the region is active. In July 2017, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck just 6 miles south of the town. The quake originated from the Lewis and Clark line, a fault system spanning 250 miles from northern Idaho to east of Helena. This seismic activity underscores the dynamic nature of the landscape that has sustained the community since the 19th century.

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