Fairfield, MT

Fairfield is a Teton County town on U.S. 89 between Great Falls and Choteau, with Freezeout Lake about five miles west. The 2020 census counted 759 residents. Fairfield Public Schools serve grades K–12, and the town's roads, grain facilities, and farm-service businesses sit in the middle of the Greenfield Bench. Hay and grain fields spread out around the town, while Freezeout Lake brings a major migratory bird stop to the nearby prairie.

Fairfield began as a Milwaukee Railroad station. Homesteading expanded after 1909, when federal rules made larger free land claims available, and farmers settled the bench country around the tracks. Today the town is closely tied to malting barley: local crops feed the region's malting and seed-processing economy, and the barley harvest gives Fairfield a particular working reputation. U.S. 89 keeps Great Falls and Choteau in the town's regular travel pattern. The town's grain facilities sit near the old station area, linking the crop economy to its railroad beginnings. The railroad origin, school, grain fields, and bird lake all fit the same northern Montana map.