Red Lodge lies in south central Montana next to the Absaroka-Beartooth ranges. This ranching community looks onto 28 peaks rising over 12,000 ft. The famed Beartooth Highway lies to the south of Red Lodge. The 69-mile drive with dramatic switchbacks reaches heights of nearly 11,000 ft. and looks over snow-capped peaks, glaciers, alpine lakes and plateaus. Historic downtown Red Lodge features businesses built from the 1880s to 1915.

History:
Red Lodge, county seat of Carbon County (so named for its rich and numerous coal deposits) was established as a coal mining community to fuel Northern Pacific Railroad locomotives after 1883. The name is derived from the Red Lodge clan of Crows who inhabited the valley at the time of Euro-American settlement. In 1889, the Northern Pacific built a branch line from Laurel to serve the new coal mines and the growing community. Dr. J. M Fox, a friend of Northern Pacific president Henry Villard, ran the first mine, and by 1903 the town boasted a population of 3,000. By the mid 1930s, it was famous as a stopping point along the Red Lodge-Cooke City highway. Red Lodge had 2 historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places: The Hi Bug and the Red Lodge Commercial District.