Welcome to Phillips County

Published: 2020
By by Marko Manoukian

Phillips County is in North Central Montana along the Hi-Line. It encompasses 3.2 million acres with 33% being managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 48.5% as private lands. Other land managers in the area are Montana State Lands, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Agriculture is the main industry in Phillips County consisting of 53,000 mother cows (ranking third most in the state); 5,900 sheep; 363,200 crop acres; and 40,000 acres of irrigated land. The gross value of all agricultural commodities in 2017 was about $77.9 million dollars excluding any government program. Recreation is also an industry in the county with big game and upland bird hunting, and warm water fish species available in the Milk and Missouri River, which make up the southern border of the county. There is one large irrigation reservoir, Nelson Reservoir, that also has warm water sport fishing.