Formed January 13, 1913 (33rd county)
Stillwater County (8,959), Columbus (1,857)
The red brick Classical Revival structure for Stillwater County was built in 1917. It sits on a square at 3rd Avenue, Norton Street, 4th Avenue, and Lobey Street. Interstate Highway 90 is seven blocks to the northeast of the site. Warren A. Dedrick provided the building designs. The county was organized on January 13, 1913 as the 33rd county with Columbus as the only county seat. Stillwater County is named for Stillwater River. The county seat is named for explorer Christopher Columbus.
Stillwater County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a collector, a coroner, an assessor and a clerk (executive). It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.) One District Court Judge serves Stillwater, Big Horn, and Carbon counties and a court clerk serves Stillwater County (judicial.) Stillwater County is in the southern part of the state. Billings, Montana is directly east of the county. The Yellowstone River flows through the county. Stillwater County is shaped like a lounge chair sitting up. Columbus is located in the eastern third of the county. Columbus is the county seat and the largest city since it is the only incorporated city. It is 20.7% of the county population. The county center is 9 miles Northwest of Columbus. The county is surrounded clockwise by Golden Valley, Yellowstone, Carbon, Park, and Sweet Grass counties.
The area of the county is 1795 square miles. It is 38 out of 56 in the state. It ranks 24 out of 56 in population in the state. It has a density of 5.0 persons per square mile making it 18 out of 56 in the state. Stillwater County has 20.7% of its population in its incorporated areas. Interstate Highway 90 crosses the county from east to west from Yellowstone County to Sweet Grass County.
Columbus
