Plains, MT

Plains is a Sanders County town that straddles the Clark Fork River, with the fairgrounds on one shore and the main town on the other. The valley first mattered as a place where local Native communities wintered horses in the tall grass, giving the settlement the older name Horse Plains or Wild Horse Plains. The post office shortened that to Plains in 1905, and the railroad station gave the place its town footing. Plains Public Schools run from kindergarten through 12th grade, with a Class C high school serving the valley. The town's local map is unusually clear: Clark Fork water, fairgrounds, school, and the road and rail corridor through western Montana. Plains is a small river town whose name carries both the horse-country beginning and the later railroad address.