Big Hole National Battlefield

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“Big Hole National Battlefield preserves a battlefield in the western United States, located in Beaverhead County, Montana. In 1877, the Nez Perce fought a delaying action against the U.S.”
Wikipedia article Big Hole National Battlefield, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 25 National Register listings published here for Beaverhead County · listed in 1966 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 12 mi. W of Wisdom, Wisdom, 59761
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. site
Census division. Big Hole Basin
National Register reference number. 66000427 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

10 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Big Hole National Battlefield between 1994 and 2019, burning about 2 acres in total. 6 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	6
Recreation and ceremony	2
Smoking	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
13 September 1996	Natural	under an acre	Butte Field Office	FINNIGAN
9 August 1999	Natural	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	CASCADE CREEK
7 August 1994	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Big Hole National Battlefield	MORMON DIG
5 August 2019	Natural	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	RUBY
31 August 2009	Natural	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	MILE MARKER 14
29 July 2012	Natural	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	BATTLEFIELD
17 July 1994	Natural	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	not named
5 November 2001	Smoking	under an acre	Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest	SAWPIT

Every fire recorded in Beaverhead County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Big Hole National Battlefield: 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Unknown	Gold	Prospect

Every working recorded in Beaverhead County

Storms near this property

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wisdom, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 4 hail, 3 wildfire, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 18 injuries. 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
September 2000	Wildfire	Wisdom	6 hurt, $10,000	Mussigbrod Complex fire - only partly in Beaverhead County, 84939 acres burned, lightning caused, continued from August.
July 2000	Wildfire	Wisdom	6 hurt, $10,000	Mussingbrod Complex fire - only partly in Beaverhead County, 84939 acres burned, lightning caused, continued past July 31.
August 2000	Wildfire	Wisdom	6 hurt, $10,000	Mussigbrod Complex fire - only partly in Beaverhead County, 84939 acres burned, lightning caused, continued past August 31.
June 2020	Heavy Rain	Wisdom	-	Mesonet station Steele Creek raws slcm8.
August 2018	Tornado (EF0)	Wisdom	-	Retired geologist observed a tornado on his property about 1-mile ESE of Wisdom. 50-lb. deck table was blown about 10 feet, a small greenhouse was leveled, and portions of fences were damaged. His personal weather station recorded a 78-mph peak gust at 16:38 MST. In addition, he estimated the tornado moved eastward at about 25 mph for about 3/4 mile. Thus, it is estimated that the tornado occurred between 16:38 and 16:40 MST.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Wisdom	-	Outflow winds produced a wind gust of 52KT (60MPH) as reported 5 miles E of Wisdom.
August 2009	Hail	Wisdom	-	A severe thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Wisdom.
July 2002	Hail	Wisdom	-	A severe thunderstorm produce 1.00 inch near Wisdom.
July 2002	Hail	Wisdom	-	A severe thunderstorm produced 0.75 inch hail near Wisdom.
July 1996	Hail	Wisdom	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Beaverhead County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000427 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Beaverhead County	All 25 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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.