Baker, MT

Baker is Fallon County's seat on the eastern Montana plains, a city that grew alongside the Milwaukee Road and the homesteaders who followed it. The 2020 census counted 1,802 residents. The railroad created a lake near the town to supply steam locomotives, and the settlement grew from that rail-water combination into a service center for dryland farms and ranches. Later natural gas and oil added another chapter to the local economy.

The O'Fallon Historical Museum is Baker's best oddball landmark: its collection includes the original Fallon County Jail and Steer Montana, a taxidermied steer billed as the world's largest. U.S. 12 cuts through town, and the sandstone country around Baker points toward Medicine Rocks State Park. Baker Public Schools run from kindergarten through twelfth grade, so the town still works as a county-seat town in the old sense - courthouse, school, museum, and a highway tying the surrounding country together. The courthouse and museum give Baker a recognizable local center.