Things to Do in Lewistown, Montana

This is Montana’s largest coldwater hatchery, raising up to two million fish a year for about 100 waters around the state. It sits next to Big Springs, where Big Spring Creek begins, about 7 miles southeast of town. You can walk the raceways, and the city park next door has a ball field, shaded picnic area and the spring itself.

★ Good to know The grounds are open dawn to dusk every day and it’s free. At the circular display pond you can buy a handful of fish food and feed the trout.

The city’s 24-mile trail system links downtown, schools, parks and ponds, and much of it follows Big Spring Creek. A good start is behind the Yogo Inn, where the trail crosses Main Street. Head south past Frank Day Park into the Brewery Flats Recreation Area, where the path follows the creek’s meanders. The Frog Ponds loop nearby is stocked with trout.

★ Good to know The trails work on foot, by bike or on horseback, and you can watch the creek surface for rising trout.

This museum at 408 NE Main St. walks through the area’s history from the 1870s, when buffalo still roamed the open prairie, through the homestead boom. Displays cover local characters such as the outlaw Rattlesnake Jake Owens, cattleman Granville Stuart and world-record pistol shooter Ed McGivern. Collections run from firearms and fossils to wedding dresses and hospital equipment.

★ Good to know It’s open daily from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. Off-season tours can be arranged by calling ahead.

This four-and-a-half-hour round trip crosses three historic trestles and runs through a half-mile tunnel, with ranchland and Central Montana mountains all around. You ride in climate-controlled coaches with a full prime rib dinner, dessert and music by local entertainers.

★ Good to know It boards at the Hanover Boarding Station, about 10 miles and 20 to 25 minutes from Main Street. Trains run on select summer and fall dates and sell out, so book early through the Lewistown Area Chamber of Commerce.

Big Spring Brewing makes its beer in the old Central Feed building at 220 E. Main with Montana-grown barley and spring water from the Big Snowy Mountains. Its beers are always on tap at the steakhouse next door, Central Feed Grilling Co. Look for rotators like a chokecherry honey lager and a coffee porter made with cold brew from Rising Trout Cafe.

★ Good to know Call the brewery to hear what’s on tap or to make a dinner reservation.

Every mid-August, about 100 cowboy poets, western musicians and artists from the U.S. and Canada meet in Lewistown for four days. There’s a welcome dinner and showcase, a Friday jam and dance, a Saturday headliner concert and Sunday cowboy church. More than 2,000 people attend, with Fergus High School as headquarters.

★ Good to know A Western art and gear show runs alongside it, and the dinner train usually runs a cowboy poetry trip that weekend.

Held since 1989, this one-day September festival celebrates the chokecherry harvest on Main Street. Expect a pancake breakfast, a chokecherry culinary contest, a pit-spitting contest and live entertainment.

★ Good to know It’s usually in early to mid-September. Check with the chamber for the year’s date, and note the dinner train often runs a festival trip that weekend.