U.S. Route 2 in Montana

U.S. Highway 2
US 2 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDT
Length	666.645 mi[1] (1,072.861 km)
Existed	1926–present
Major junctions
West end	US 2 at the Idaho state line west of Troy
Major intersections	US 93 in Kalispell US 89 at Browning I-15 in Shelby US 87 near Havre US 191 in Malta
East end	US 2 at the North Dakota state line east of Bainville
Location
Counties	Lincoln, Flathead, Glacier, Toole, Liberty, Hill, Blaine, Phillips, Valley, Roosevelt
Highway system
United States Numbered Highway System List Special Divided Montana Highway System Interstate US State Secondary ← MT 1 → MT 2

U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway in the state of Montana. It extends approximately 666.6 miles (1,072.8 km) from the Idaho state line east to the North Dakota state line.

Route description[]

U.S. Route 2 in Essex, Montana

US 2 is a vital northern corridor for Montana. The road has more of its mileage within Montana than in any other state. It passes through three Indian reservations, comes very close to two others, and skirts the southern border of Glacier National Park. Most of the Montana segment of US 2 runs alongside the BNSF Railway's Northern Transcon route.

US 2 passes into Montana 10 miles (16 km) from Troy, a small town. It is also near the lowest point in Montana, where the Kootenai River leaves the state. The first large town the highway comes to is Libby. After this it meanders south and east towards Kalispell, a city of about 20,000 residents north of Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. From there the highway passes through the southern end of Glacier National Park and follows the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and the BNSF line. After crossing the continental divide at Marias Pass west of East Glacier, the highway exits the Rocky Mountains and begins its trek through the northern plains. Just before entering East Glacier, it crosses the boundary of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of northern Montana.

As the highway enters the Great Plains, specifically the northern High Plains, the first town it encounters is Browning, the largest settlement on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. From here to the North Dakota border, the area surrounding the highway and the adjacent railroad is known as "The Hi-Line" to Montanans from the early Great Northern Railway route. The Hi-Line (also spelled Highline and Hiline) is one of around 50 folk regions in Montana. It next travels through Cut Bank and Shelby, where it meets Interstate 15 and becomes the northern border of the area known as the "Golden Triangle," another folk region, in Montana. This area is one of the most agriculturally productive in the country. From Shelby it hits a string of small towns before it goes on to Havre, near the geographical center of the road in the state and the other northern apex of the Golden Triangle. Just south of Havre and off the highway about fifteen miles (24 km) is the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation. The highway continues east to Malta, before which it travels through the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and parallels the Milk River. From Malta, the highway continues on to Glasgow, just north of Fort Peck Dam, and then into the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The highway stays within the reservation for much of its remaining length through Montana, and parallels the Missouri River east of the dam. On the reservation it travels through Wolf Point and Poplar, and then exits the reservation a short distance before leaving the state. The final town of Bainville is the last major town on the highway as it leaves the state, near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.

History[]

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The route has remained mostly unchanged from its original routing, except to expand lanes or straighten and widen some narrow sections.

The most notable reroutings from the original corridor are: 1) the section from Moyie Springs, Idaho to just inside the Montana border, which once ran much further north, as seen on the 1937 map of the area^[2] (Old US 2 N. intersects today's US 2 about 2.6 miles (4.2 km) east of the state line); 2) passing north of Kila; 3) a route swap with S-206 between Evergreen and Columbia Falls in 1983 (as seen in the 1985 state map);^[3] 4) widening the highway to three or four lanes between Hungry Horse and West Glacier in 1987 (as seen on page 35 of the 2013 road log); and 5) construction of a more direct route between East Glacier and Browning over the Two Medicine River (which eliminated the concurrency with US 89 between Kiowa and Browning). All these former segments are still in use today. The former section from East Glacier to Kiowa is MT 49.

One former segment of the original 1926 corridor is maintained as a hiking trail, just east of the intersection with MT 56.

At Marias Pass, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Monument, a 60-foot-tall (18 m) obelisk patterned after the Washington Monument, was built in 1931 to honor the 25th anniversary of the United States Forest Service. It originally stood right in the middle of the highway, with traffic flowing around it. In 1989, it was placed in a rest area/memorial park south of the highway, and the highway at the summit was widened to four lanes to allow slower vehicles to be passed before descending the pass.^[4]

Major intersections[]

County	Location	mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Lincoln	​	0.000	0.000	US 2 west – Bonners Ferry	Continuation into Idaho
		3.764	6.058	S-508 north (Yaak River Road)
	Troy	16.951	27.280	MT 56 south – Thompson Falls
	Libby	32.387	52.122	MT 37 north (California Avenue) – Eureka
	​	35.789	57.597	S-482 south
		41.968	67.541	S-482 north
Flathead	​	81.374	130.959	S-556 south (Thompson River Road)
	Kalispell	119.807	192.811	US 93 Alt. – Whitefish, Missoula	Kalispell bypass
		120.297	193.599	S-424 north / S-503 south (Meridian Road)
		121.016	194.756	US 93 (Main Street) – Whitefish, Missoula
	Evergreen	123.028	197.994	MT 35 south – Bigfork
		124.844	200.917	S-548 west (Reserve Drive)
	​	134.132	215.865	MT 40 west to US 93 – Whitefish
	Columbia Falls	136.876	220.281	S-486 north (Nucleus Avenue)
	​	138.477	222.857	S-206 south
	West Glacier	153.146	246.465	Going-to-the-Sun Road
Flathead–Glacier county line	​	196.587	316.376	Marias Pass
Glacier	East Glacier	208.143	334.974	MT 49 north (Looking Glass Hill Road) – Glacier National Park	MT 49 closed in winter
	Browning	220.505	354.868	US 89 north – St. Mary	West end of US 89 concurrency
		221.080	355.794	S-464 north
	​	224.346	361.050	US 89 south – Great Falls	East end of US 89 concurrency
		235.711	379.340	S-444 north
		253.772	408.406	S-358 south – Valier
	Cut Bank	255.029	410.429	S-213 north
Toole	Shelby	278.317	447.908	I-15 – Lethbridge, Great Falls	Exit 363 on I-15; west end of I-15 BL concurrency
		279.310	449.506	I-15 BL north (Oilfield Avenue) – Lethbridge	East end of 1-15 Bus. concurrency
	​	284.796	458.335	S-417 south
		303.325	488.154	S-343 north – Galata
Liberty	​	319.763	514.609	S-409 north – Whitlash
	Chester	321.713	517.747	S-223 south (5th Street W) – Fort Benton
	Joplin	331.797	533.976	S-224 north – Joplin
Hill	Rudyard	341.516	549.617	S-432 south (Rudyard Road S)
		341.848	550.151	S-255 north (Rudyard Road N)
	Gildford	353.516	568.929	S-449 north / S-448 south – Gildford
	​	379.169	610.213	US 87 south – Great Falls	US 87 northern terminus
	Havre	382.490	615.558	S-234 south (5th Avenue) –
		382.633	615.788	S-232 north (7th Avenue) to S-233 – Canada
Blaine	Chinook	403.670	649.644	S-240 south (Cleveland Road) to S-529
	​	405.878	653.197	S-325 north
	Harlem	425.703	685.103	S-241 north
	Fort Belknap Agency	428.664	689.868	MT 66 south – Hays
Phillips	Dodson	453.247	729.430	S-204 south (Sage Road)
	​	461.571	742.827	S-363 south
	Malta	470.744	757.589	US 191 north – Loring, Swift Current	West end of US 191 concurrency
		470.948	757.917	US 191 south – Lewistown	East end of US 191 concurrency
	Saco	498.545	802.330	S-243 north
Valley	Hinsdale	512.174	824.264	S-537 north (Montana Street)
	Glasgow	540.944	870.565	MT 42 south – Fort Peck
	​	543.178	874.160	MT 24 – Opheim, Fort Peck
	Nashua	555.271	893.622	MT 117 south – Fort Peck
	​	557.030	896.453	S-438 north
Roosevelt	​	588.781	947.551	S-250 north
	Wolf Point	590.055	949.601	MT 25 south – Circle
	​	596.680	960.263	MT 13 – Scobey, Circle
		616.632	992.373	S-251 north
		618.625	995.580	S-480 south
	Brockton	625.094	1,005.991	S-344 north
	Culbertson	644.034	1,036.472	MT 16 south (Broadway) – Sidney	West end of MT 16 concurrency
		644.101	1,036.580	MT 16 north (1st Avenue E) – Plentywood, Regina	East end of MT 16 concurrency; west end of Theodore Roosevelt Expressway
	Bainville	658.412	1,059.611	S-327 (Clinton Street)
	​	659.259	1,060.975	S-405 north
		666.645	1,072.861	US 2 east (Theodore Roosevelt Expressway) – Williston	Continuation into North Dakota
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

References[]

Route map:

U.S. Route 2
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