Harlowton, Montana
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Harlowton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59036. It stands on Jawbone Creek. The Survey maps it on the Harlowton quadrangle. 955 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,196 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Harlowton
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Graves Hotellisted 1980
Milwaukee Road Historic Districtlisted 1988
Population over time
2 figuresHarlowton fell from 997 to 955 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 997 | |
| 2020 | 955 | -42 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1889 USGS Big Snowy Mountain quadrangle1:250000
- 1893 USGS Big Snowy Mountain quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Roundup quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Roundup quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Harlowton quadrangle1:24000
- 1993 USGS Harlowton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
4 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Harlowton between 2016 and 2020, burning about 5 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 July 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Northeastern Land Office | not named |
| 16 July 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Wheatland County | CLYDE MA |
| 6 April 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Southern Land Office | SELKIRK |
| 16 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Northeastern Land Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
53 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harlowton in 53 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 37 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 funnel cloud, 2 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1994 | Hail | Harlowton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Hail | Harlowton | - | Two inch hail reported. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Harlowton | - | One point five inch hail reported. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | EM report of multiple structures with lost roofs, uprooted trees as well as tree limb damage. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | Corrects previous non-tstm wind dmg report from Harlowton. Power lines down with some power outages reported. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | Power lines and a shed were blown down in Harlowton. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Harlowton | - | Nickel to quarter size hail |
| August 2002 | Flash Flood | Harlowton | - | Water was running across Old Dump Road. Road closed for 2 hours. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | 1.00 inch diameter hail reported near Harlowton. Some areas the hail was 2-3 inches deep. Small tree branches and leaves were stripped from the trees. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | 1.00 inch diameter hail covered the ground 2 to 3 inches deep. Reported by County Emergency Management. |
| August 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Harlowton | - | Wheatland sheriff dispatch reported two funnel clouds. |
| August 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Harlowton | - | A driver on U.S. Highway 191 and an amateur radio operator reported a thin rope like tornado that was on the ground over rural areas for around 15 minutes. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Harlowton | - | Spotter report of dime size hail. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | Spotter estimated 60 mph wind gust. Some power lines were downed in Harlowton and in Shawmut. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Harlowton | - | Spotter report of dime size hail. |
| August 1999 | Hail | Harlowton | - | Spotter report of dime size hail. |
| July 1998 | Flash Flood | Harlowton | - | A slow moving thunderstorm with heavy rain produced water up to a foot deep 6 miles east of Harlowton on Highway 12. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| September 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Funnel Cloud | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Harlowton | - | no account filed |
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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Springwater Colony | 4.5 miles | 11 | |
| Winnecook | 9.4 miles | 11 | |
| Duncan Ranch Colony | 10.1 miles | 16 | |
| Twodot | 12.7 miles | 16 | |
| Judith Gap | 17.2 miles | 12 | |
| Shawmut | 17.6 miles | 11 | |
| Hedgesville | 17.6 miles | 11 | |
| Living Springs | 19.1 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Harlowton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q967125 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 772154. 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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





