Biohazard Cleanup Near West Circle Circle, MT

Circle is an incorporated town and the county seat of McCone County in eastern Montana.

The community was named for a local rancher who branded his cattle with the image of a circle.

The town's founder, Peter Rorvik, arrived in 1905 and opened a post office and a general store, and homesteaders began moving into the area in 1909.

The Great Northern Railway built a station at Circle in 1914, anchoring the young farming and ranching town on the eastern Montana plains.

Oil was discovered southeast of Circle in 1951, and the resulting boom pushed the town to its highest-ever recorded population of 1,117 in the 1960 census.

The 2020 census counted 591 residents in Circle, down from 615 in 2010.

The 2010 census recorded 278 households in Circle, with an average household size of 2.14 people.

The Redwater River runs just east of town and flows northeast to the Missouri River near Poplar, while its tributary Horse Creek runs through the northern part of town.

Circle covers about 0.78 square miles at an elevation of 2,438 feet and has a semi-arid climate, averaging about 14.5 inches of precipitation a year.

The McCone County Museum in Circle displays area history and a wildlife collection, with the old Northern Pacific depot preserved on its grounds.