During a recent roadtrip, I passed through the small town of Darby. It was such a pretty spot that I spent a little time exploring it and snapping some photos.
Darby is a small town of roughly 800 people at the southern end of Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, not far from the Idaho border and the Continental Divide. It’s part of the territory Lewis and Clark visited on their journey to the Pacific.
Darby was settled in the early 1880s. The town was named for its postmaster, James Darby, and was formally incorporated in 1917. Like many towns in the area, its early industries included mining, fur trading, logging, agriculture, and ranching.
Today the town is known for outdoor recreation opportunities like hiking, access to wilderness in the Bitterroot National Forest, fishing on the Bitterroot River, and skiing at nearby Lost Trail Powder Mountain. If the town seems familiar it might be because it was a filming location for the TV series Yellowstone.
