CHINOOK, Montana Community Information

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  Enjoy the Scenery

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  Sugarbeet Festival

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  Blaine County Museum

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  Bear Paw Battlefield

  Photo courtesy: Bear Paw Battlefield Memorial

Chinook, a county seat, is located on Lodge Creek near where it empties into the Milk River. The town's name comes from an Indian word meaning "warm wind," and it is this wind, melting the snow in January and February, that makes it possible for cattle to reach the rich bunchgrass and survive—chinook winds have saved many a cattleman from disaster. It was Charlie Russell's postcard picture of a starving range cow, "Waiting for a Chinook" (also called "The Last Five Thousand"), that first won him recognition as an artist. (from Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)

While in town visit the Blaine County Museum featuring area history and artifacts with an emphasis on the homestead era. Native American artifacts and culture make up an important part of the museum's collection, together with early photographic records of Nez Perce Life. A site on the Montana Dinosaur Trail, the museum's Paleontology Exhibit displays a dozen Judith River Formation exhibits including Hadrosaur, Gorgosaurus, and Edmontonia fossils from the area. Military and Nez Perce artifacts from the Bear Paw Battlefield are on exhibit. The battlefield should be on your itinerary. Interpretive signs and markers line the footpath through the battlefield. The museum features "40 miles to freedom" and visitor center to the Battlefield.

The Bear Paw Battlefield is the site of the last major Indian battle in the United States. Located just 16 miles south of Chinook on Route 240, it is one of Montana's three units of the Nez Perce National Historic Park. The Battlefield is the site of the surrender of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians on October 5, 1877. After a 1,700-mile retreat, Chief Joseph made his famous speech of surrender: "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever."