Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Trego, MT

Trego is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in northeastern Lincoln County, Montana, and it serves as the gateway community to the Tobacco Valley for travelers heading north from Flathead County.

The 2020 census counted 515 residents in Trego, spread across roughly 54 square miles of the Fortine Creek valley and surrounding forest, a density of fewer than 10 people per square mile.

According to the 2020 census, Trego's 515 residents lived in 231 households.

The Fortin family were the area's first homesteaders: Octave Fortin settled 160 acres of meadowland in 1894 on what became the OF Ranch.

Fortine Creek and the nearby town of Fortine are named for the Fortins, and family tradition says the extra 'e' appeared when Great Northern Railway engineers heard Octave pronounce his name the French way, 'For-Tan,' assumed it was spelled Fortine, and he answered, 'Oui, oui.'

Local tradition holds that the Great Northern Railway mixed up the station signs for Trego and Fortine when the line was completed in 1904, and because its maps were already printed, the railroad simply left the two names swapped, as they remain today.

In 1905, Octave Fortin was one of the three founding members of Trego School District #53, which still operates a K-8 public school in the community.

On May 13, 1925, Octave Fortin was issued the first U.S. Forest Service grazing permit ever granted for the Blackfeet National Forest, now the Kootenai National Forest.

The Ant Flat Ranger Station near Trego, established in 1904 as one of the region's first year-round ranger stations, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; its first ranger was Fred Herrig, a decorated Rough Rider and friend of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Dickey Lake, the largest lake in Trego, and Murphy Lake offer boat ramps, campgrounds, hiking trails, and swimming beaches, and a Bible camp founded in 1946 still operates on Dickey Lake's northwest shore.