Cow Island, Montana

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Chinook census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59535. It stands on Cow Creek. The Survey maps it on the Cow Island quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.

Cow Island within Blaine County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1943 USGS Landusky quadrangle1:125000
1954 USGS Cow Island quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1954 USGS Lewistown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1959 USGS Lewistown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1984 USGS Zortman quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

15 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Cow Island (historical) between 1996 and 2019, burning about 181 acres in total. 13 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	13
Debris and open burning	1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 1998	Natural	under an acre	North Central Montana District	COW CREEK
5 September 2000	Natural	2.0 acres	North Central Montana District	CAMP CREEK
1 September 2012	Natural	22 acres	Malta Field Office	HIDEAWAY
6 August 2004	Natural	1.5 acres	North Central Montana District	CABIN CR
3 August 2014	Natural	under an acre	Malta Field Office	MCDONALD
29 August 1996	Natural	12 acres	North Central Montana District	BULL CREEK
13 August 2011	Natural	40 acres	North Central Montana District	WOODHAWK
11 August 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	36 acres	Northeastern Land Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Blaine County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Cow Island (historical): 3 occurrences, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Abrasive, Zeolites, Diamond, Gold, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Cow Creek Clays	Clay, Bentonite	Occurrence
Cow Creek Placers	Gold	Occurrence
Dike 2	Abrasive, Zeolites, Diamond	Unknown
Hal 2, 3	Abrasive, Zeolites, Diamond	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Blaine County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Power Plant (historical)	3.6 miles	10
Hays	18.9 miles	9
Pine Grove	19.8 miles	9
Leroy	21.2 miles	8
Rattlesnake	22.3 miles	10
Dry Lake	23.7 miles	7
Riedel (historical)	26.2 miles	7
Ragland Bench (historical)	26.3 miles	7

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1722392. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.