Highwood, Montana
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Geraldine census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59450. It lies near Big Sag. The Survey maps it on the Highwood quadrangle. 165 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,386 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresHighwood fell from 176 to 165 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 | 176 | |
| 2020 | 165 | -11 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 15 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.
- 1890 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000
- 1897 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Great Falls quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Highwood quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Great Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Highwood quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
3 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Highwood between 2019 and 2020, burning about 8 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Chouteau County | FDH-MTLG19-168 |
| 24 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Chouteau County | FDH-MTLG19-80 |
| 6 October 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Chouteau County | FDH-MTLG19-348 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
25 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highwood in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 13 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 tornado. 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 2025 | Hail | Highwood | - | Social media image of approximately golf ball sized hail in Highwood. Time estimated using radar. |
| July 2019 | Hail | Highwood | - | Public reported hail sized 1 inch near Highwood. Report relayed by NWS Chat. |
| June 2018 | Tornado (EF0) | Highwood | - | Storm chaser recorded video of non-mesocyclonic tornado near Highwood around 3:55 PM MDT. This tornado lasted about 5-minutes. No damage, injuries, or deaths reported. Location and path of tornado estimated via radar. Width also estimated. |
| August 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | Mesonet station reported measured wind gust of 63 mph. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Highwood 10SE and 2 inch diameter hail at Highwood 8S. Small tree limbs were reported down. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Highwood | - | A thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Highwood 10SE. |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A 62 mph gust measured at the highwood mesonet site. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Highwood | - | Hail 1.00 inches (quarter sized) reported in Highwood, MT. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Highwood | - | Flooding caused portions of Upper Highwood Creek Road to be closed. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Highwood 2E. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 64 mph at Highwood 7SW. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A shallow column of swirling dirt and dust, or gustnado, was observed by several witnesses along an outflow boundaries to the southeast of Carter along the Highwood bench. Was on the ground for about 7 minutes. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Highwood. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Highwodd 7NE. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a 60 mph wind gust near Highwood. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Highwood | - | A severe thunderstorm produced 0.75 inch hail and 45 mph winds at Highwood 7NE. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | Actual spotter location Highwood 3 SE. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Hail | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Highwood | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Highwood | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Sag | 4.2 miles | 13 | |
| Waltham | 5.4 miles | 16 | |
| Shepherd Crossing | 5.7 miles | 16 | |
| Pack and Lacey Crossing | 6.4 miles | 16 | |
| Lander Crossing | 8.6 miles | 16 | |
| Shonkin | 11.9 miles | 13 | |
| Patterson (historical) | 12.6 miles | 13 | |
| Tunis | 15.7 miles | 13 |
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 Highwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q964182 | 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 772406. 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.







