Melville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northern Sweet Grass County,

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, United States. It lies along local roads just west of

U.S. Route 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a north–south highway in the Western United States and a spur of parent route U.S. Route 91 that has two segments. The southern segment runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part o ...

, north of the city of Big Timber, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Sweet Grass County. Its elevation is 5,020 feet (1,530 m). Although Melville is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 59055, which opened on 4 January 1883.

History

Located 20 miles north of Big Timber, Melville was established in 1877 as a village named after Rear Admiral George Melville, the Arctic explorer. A post office first went into operation in Melville in 1883, and the first Lutheran congregation in Montana was established there in 1885. Until a church was built in 1914, all services were held in the schoolhouse. Melville is a ranching community, originally settled by Norwegians. It became a regional meeting place for Saturday night dances, horse races, and gambling. At its height, Melville had a flourmill, a cheese factory, a hotel, at least four saloons, two stores and a drug store. The railroad in Big Timber made such luxuries as dried fruits and green coffee available. Melville is situated along the Sweet Grass Creek. The town provides supplies for the sheep camps in the Crazy Mountains and is the headquarters of the Cremer Stock Ranch.

Climate

The Köppen Climate System classifies the weather as

humid continental Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

, abbreviated as ''Dfb''.Climate Summary for Melville, Montana
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References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Sweet Grass County, Montana Unincorporated communities in Montana