Big Timber is a city in and the county seat of Sweet Grass County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,650 at the 2020 census.
Big Timber takes its name from Big Timber Creek, which was named by William Clark because of the large cottonwood trees. The post office was established in 1880, closed, then reopened in 1882 with Ella Burns as postmaster. In 1881 Charles McDonnell became the first person to drive sheep into Sweet Grass County and Big Timber. As a stop on the Northern Pacific Railroad, Big Timber became a major wool-shipping depot. It became the county seat in 1895. A fire in 1908 destroyed half the commercial buildings and a third of the residential homes.
Climate
Big Timber has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) bordering on a humid continental climate (Dfb). Although winters can be frigid, frequent chinook winds will raise temperatures above on an average twenty days between December and February, and have raised them to or above on ten occasions during these months since 1894. The chinooks mean Big Timber's 31.3 days per year failing to top freezing is among the fewest in Montana, with the average window for such maxima being from November 11 to March 18.
|source 2 = National Weather Service
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