My wife and I are thinking about moving to Miles City with our three daughters. I suppose I'm just looking for a heads up on anything someone would want to be aware of. One thing I would like any extra info on is the school district. My daughters are 5, 6 & 7 so the school would be an important concern to me. Also, how is the economy? What do people do there for fun? Population? How is the construction industry? Does Miles City have a Rotary Club? Any information you would want to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Also, what kind of fishing and hunting is typical for Miles City? My girls and I fish lakes and ponds for trout and small mouth bass and I take them out hunting with me as well for black tail over here in Washington.

I just gave a program at the Rotary Club on Tuesday, so yes to that. We hover around 9,000 and what keeps our economy going is our location. We are the biggest thing for 150 miles in any direction. Plus we have a number of government agencies that are large employers.

I think the construction industry is cranking up again. It needs to. Housing is short around here, especially for nice, family rentals.

My brother is principal of the parochial school so I'm not an expert on the current public system but I would imagine we are up there with the rest of the state, which is highly ranked nationwide.

This is outdoor country, hunting and fishing. There are LOTS of organizations to belong to. We don't have an indoor pool but lots of lovely parks.

I believe our schools are among the best in the state. We have wonderful caring teachers and lots of activities such as soccer, scouts, 4-H drama. If you are the kind of people who enjoy being inolved in the community. The community here will welcome you, with open arms.

Amorette did a good job of giving you an overview of Miles City. She did; however, neglect to mention that the largest segment of the Miles City economy stems from Agriculture, either directly or indirectly. Much of what made Miles City "Miles City" and continues to do so is the close ties to Agriculture.

As far as Hunting & Fishing opportunities they are somewhat varied. In addition to the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers, there are several Fishing Access Sites in and near Miles City that offer public access to these rivers. A number of ponds/lakes that are available to the public. I would suggest contacting the Region 7 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks office in Miles City and request the Region 7 Pond Book.

Sorry, I cannot remember right off hand the requirement for being considered a resident in order to qualify for the Resident Hunting or Fishing licenses. Again, you will want to contact FWP - there are a number of acreages - privately & publicly owned that are enrolled in the Block Management Program. This booklet is also available from the regional office of FWP.

Check out http://fwp.mt.gov for more information.

http://www.city-data.com/...ntana.html

question for Elizabeth Emilsson: did you intentionally forget the comma between 4H and drama?

Thank you everyone who has repied, I sincerely appreciate your opinions. If we do move it will be within a year. I am a member of our local Rotary club and also am as involved as I can be with the community that I reside in.

I ecourage and certainly will like to hear more thoughts on this thread. Thank you again.

Did I purposefully leave out the comma between 4-H and drama? I rarely make spelling, punctuation, grammarical mistakes intentionally. They just happen naturally.

The other folks have done a great job explaining Miles City. Let me offer a few other items of interest. Not sure if you are looking to buy, rent, or build, but housing is difficult in Miles City, especially if you plan to rent. Rentals, at least good ones, are few and far between. The housing market itself right now seems to be pretty decent and there's lots of options.

There's lots for kids, especially the age of yours, to do here. Miles City offers a lot in the way of sports, but also other activities. We have a great art center that offers art classes, 4-H is a big deal here, as well as a very active Girl Scouts program and a couple different dance groups.

We are located two hours from Billings, the largest city in Montana, so pretty much anything you can't get in MC, isn't that far away.

As someone else mentioned, fishing and hunting is a big deal here. You won't find much for bass or trout fishing in this part of the state, except in some of the smaller stocked ponds, but the rivers and some of the larger reservoirs like Fort Peck offer a wide variety of other fishing opportunities. There's several large parcels of public land here not far from town, as well at FWP's Block Management program which opens up a ton of private land for public access.

Does anyone have some advice for finding a rental? I'm looking for a studio - 2 bedroom rental myself. Thank you!

Check the Miles City Star Newspaper there are apartments listed for rent in the classified ads.

Dyakoo--

Check with the real estate places in town. I know there's at least one or two of them that keep a listing of local landlords who may have something available.

Thanks! One problem: I'm a few states away. Any advice?

http://www.wamitchellagen...id317.html is the rentals page at one of the local agencies - seems pretty comprehensive. It lists phone numbers of the landlords.

Good luck.

Gonna shamelessly plug my blog site... just something I put up for fun.

One of my pages is my videos I have made set to different types of music. Three videos on my "All Videos" page deal with my kids and have lots of pictures and video of around Miles City.

Summer 2007
Summer Part 2
Beautiful Sunday

Maybe they will give you another helpful perspective of life in Miles City.

Enjoy...

http://www.c3tribe.com/wp/all-videos/

(cough, subscribe.. cough) I will be updating a lot with more pics and vids.

[This message has been edited by SeptyTwo (3/29/2011)]

Nice videos! I love seeing pics and video of the BHS. Very nicely edited as well.

Cheers!
FH

Here are some tips:
dont mispell anything on milescity.com, u get the shaft and they refer to u as "uneducated"

Watch....It's quiet entertaining and shows that not everyone in the community is welcoming and friendly.

not quiet entertaining but quite entertaining...thanks

and miles is a not a liberal town, conservative through and through.
only all the libs hang out here at mc.commie.

matt

My family and I just moved to Miles City from Washington and so far we love it here. It is for sure small town but that is one of the things that make it so much better. Small towns are the best place to raise kids. Our daughter just started public school here in town and she is in the 2nd grade. The school here is way ahead of the school she was in back home so I would say the schools are way better here than in Washington. Her teacher is amazing and is really focused on her education and catching her up. Housing is hard to find rentals but if you know in advance when you are coming I would suggest calling local real estate agents and the chamber of commerce...they were a big help to us. Fishing is good here but if you are from Washington it does not compare since you will not have Salmon fishing or Steelhead like back home but the Yellowstone River runs right next to town and I hear it has good fishing...we have not tried as the non resident fishing licence is pricey....you have to live here for 6 months to get a resident fishing licence. Hunting seems to be amazing since I have seen hundreds of Antelope and Deer since we have been here. The scenry is very different than Washington. Back home it is very green and tons of trees and mountains and here it is dry and not so many trees but we think it is very pretty just in a different way. A lot of farm land and surrounding bad lands makes the scenry very pretty. Hope some of this helps since it is an opinion from a former Washintonian. We really love it here and so far it has held true about everyone being kind and welcoming. People wave at you on the streets and people stop to talk to you in the grocery store. That may not seem like a big deal to all the people of Miles City but for a family from the outside moving in, it is a very big deal and has had a huge positive impact on our daughter. I would reccomend Miles City to anyone looking for a happier lifestyle that focuses on family and community.

Paddlefishing season coming up for those of you who miss salmon. Now paddlefish are a challenge!