Huntley, MT

Huntley sits along the Yellowstone River east of Billings, between Shepherd and Worden, with agriculture filling the space between town and the metro edge. The 2020 census counted 442 residents. Its name travels farther than the CDP: Huntley lent it to the Huntley Project, a federal irrigation system that began delivering water in 1907. The project diverts Yellowstone water through a 32-mile main canal and a web of laterals and drains, turning dry prairie into fields of sugar beets, corn, wheat, barley, hay, and pasture.

That history is gathered at the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture, where a schoolhouse, tar-paper shack, log cabin, homestead house, barn, doctor's office, and bank recreate the early project landscape. The town's students attend Huntley Project K-12 Schools, whose district office and campuses are in Worden. Huntley's Homesteader Days, held each July, adds a community celebration to the irrigation story. Around town, the Yellowstone River, canals, farm roads, and the old project sites show why Huntley is both an eastern Billings suburb and an agricultural place with a much older footprint.