The Circle Brand: Open-Range Origins and Modern Landlording on Montana’s Eastern Prairie
The town of Circle takes its name from the brand of the Mabry Cattle Corporation, which drove herds into this section of eastern Montana in 1884 and established one of the open-range operations that defined the region before the homesteaders arrived. It was common practice in the open-range era for a ranch to be known by its brand rather than its corporate name, and when Peter Rorvik opened a store and post office in the old ranch house in 1905, he naturally named the settlement “Circle.” That branding origin — a cattle brand becoming a town name becoming a county seat — tells you everything you need to know about the economic foundation of McCone County: this is cattle country, it was cattle country before it was anything else, and cattle ranching, along with grain farming, remains the dominant economic activity more than 140 years after the Mabry herds first grazed these plains.
McCone County was carved from Dawson County in 1919, during the same homestead-era county-creation wave that produced many of eastern Montana’s smaller counties. The county was named for State Senator George McCone, who had served as one of the first county commissioners of the original Dawson County. Circle won the bid for county seat — a designation that has been critical to the town’s survival, because county government employment and the courthouse itself provide a stable institutional presence that purely agricultural communities lack.
The Agricultural Economy and Its Rental Market Implications
McCone County’s agricultural dominance is quantifiable: agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting employ approximately 304 of the county’s 914 workers — roughly a third of the total workforce, a proportion that dwarfs the agricultural employment share in any urban Montana county. Educational services (Circle Schools) and public administration (county government) are the next largest sectors, but at a fraction of agriculture’s scale. The county’s median household income of roughly $72,000 is higher than many neighboring eastern Montana counties, reflecting the fact that successful large-scale farming and ranching operations can generate strong incomes in good years — but this figure masks the year-to-year volatility that is inherent in commodity agriculture.
For landlords, the agricultural dominance creates a rental market that is unlike anything in western Montana. The total number of renter-occupied housing units in McCone County is fewer than 150, spread across the entire 2,683-square-mile county. Most of these units are in Circle itself. The rental vacancy rate of nearly 15 percent sounds high, but in a market this small, it represents perhaps 20 actual vacant rental units — some of which may be in poor condition, seasonally unavailable, or located in isolated rural settings that do not serve the typical renter. Available, habitable rental housing in Circle is genuinely scarce, and landlords who maintain their properties to a reasonable standard will generally have little difficulty finding tenants — though the pool of applicants is necessarily small and screening options are limited by the personal-acquaintance dynamics of a 580-person town.
Circle’s Institutional Employers
Circle’s non-agricultural employment is concentrated in three institutional anchors that provide the stable, year-round income base that the town’s small rental market depends on. The McCone County Health Center is the county’s critical access healthcare facility, providing 24/7 emergency room care, a physician assistant on staff, and the basic medical services that a remote community of this size requires. Healthcare employees represent the most reliable tenant pool in McCone County — their positions are salaried, their employment is not contingent on commodity prices or weather, and their presence in Circle is by definition year-round.
Circle Public Schools serve the county’s K-12 students and employ teachers, administrators, and support staff whose positions provide the same predictable income that makes school employees reliable tenants throughout rural Montana. The school has experienced the enrollment declines that affect virtually all of eastern Montana’s small-population counties — Circle High School graduated 60 seniors in 1966 but only 17 in 2009 — but the school system remains operational and its employees remain a core tenant demographic.
County government employment, centered at the McCone County Courthouse in Circle, adds another layer of year-round institutional stability. The county attorney, sheriff’s office, clerk and recorder, road department, and various other county offices employ a modest but reliable workforce. Federal agricultural agency offices — the USDA Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service — also maintain a presence in Circle, adding a small federal employment component to the local economy.
The Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge and Seasonal Recreation
The southern portion of McCone County borders the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, the second-largest national wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states at approximately 1.1 million acres. The CMR, as it is commonly known, stretches 125 miles along the Missouri River and provides habitat for elk, mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and hundreds of bird species across a landscape of native prairie, forested coulees, and badlands that has changed remarkably little since the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through in 1805.
The refuge and the surrounding public and private lands make McCone County a destination for big game hunting during fall seasons. This creates a brief but genuine seasonal demand for housing — hunters seeking lodging in Circle or on nearby ranches for periods ranging from a weekend to several weeks. This demand does not constitute a tourism economy in the way that fly fishing tourism drives Ennis or skiing drives Big Sky, but it does create an opportunity for landlords with furnished properties or spare rooms to generate seasonal income. As with all seasonal rental arrangements, landlords should evaluate whether the arrangement constitutes a residential tenancy under Montana law and structure agreements accordingly.
Population Decline and the Long View
McCone County’s population has been in decline for nearly a century. The county peaked at over 4,500 residents in the 1930 Census, swollen by the homestead era’s influx of settlers. The 1960 Census recorded a brief uptick to roughly 3,300 during an oil exploration boom, but the underlying trajectory has been downward ever since. The 2020 Census counted 1,729 residents, and current estimates place the population at approximately 1,700 — less than 40 percent of its 1930 peak.
This decline reflects the structural forces that have emptied agricultural communities across the northern Great Plains: farm mechanization that reduced the labor required to operate large-acreage operations, farm consolidation that merged small homestead claims into economically viable modern farms and ranches, the departure of young people for educational and employment opportunities in Montana’s cities, and the aging of the remaining population. The median age in McCone County is over 46, and the county’s age structure skews toward seniors — a demographic profile that is common across eastern Montana’s most rural counties.
For landlords, this population trajectory is the central long-term consideration. McCone County is not growing, its economy is not diversifying, and rental investment here is fundamentally a bet on the continued viability of the agricultural economy and the institutional anchors (health center, school, county government) that sustain Circle as a functioning community. The upside is that in a market this thin, well-maintained rental properties face minimal competition and reliable occupancy from institutional employees who have no alternative housing nearby. The downside is that the market offers no growth premium and no exit liquidity — selling a rental property in Circle requires finding a buyer in one of the smallest real estate markets in the country.
McCone County’s cooperatives — Farmers Elevator (a division of CHS), McCone Electric Co-op (serving over 14,000 square miles of eastern Montana), and Mid-Rivers Communications (telephone, wireless, internet, and cable TV) — are significant local employers and represent the cooperative economic structure that is characteristic of Great Plains agricultural communities. Mid-Rivers Communications in particular plays an outsized role in rural eastern Montana by providing the telecommunications infrastructure that allows remote participation in the broader economy, and its employees in Circle represent another pocket of stable, year-round employment.
McCone County landlord-tenant matters are governed by the Montana Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1977, MCA Title 70, Chapter 24, and the Montana Tenants’ Security Deposits Act, MCA Title 70, Chapter 25. Nonpayment notice: 3-day pay or vacate. Minor lease violation: 14-day cure or quit. Major lease violation: 3-day cure or quit. No-cause termination (month-to-month): 30-day written notice. Security deposit: no cap; 10-day return if no deductions, 30-day itemized return if deductions; must be held in separate bank account; bank name and address provided to tenant; 24-hour written cleaning notice required before deducting cleaning charges (MCA § 70-25-201(3)). Landlord entry: 24 hours’ advance written notice (MCA § 70-24-312). No rent control. No local ordinances beyond state law. Federal lead paint disclosure required for pre-1978 properties. FED action filed at McCone County Justice Court in Circle. Consult a licensed Montana attorney before taking legal action. Last updated: April 2026.
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