Chinook Court

Chinook Court is made up of Chinook Justice Court and Chinook City Court both of which are in the Seventeenth judicial district of Montana. Civic ordinance and traffic infractions occurring in Blaine county outside of the city limits of Chinook and Harlem are handled in the justice court. The citizens of Blaine county are lucky to have US 2 running clear across the county and met by SR 66 from the South and SR 241 from the North. US 2 runs through the Northern part of Chinook and SR 240 and SR 529 come into town from the South.

The town has tried to capture a bit of the past with the renovation of many of the old homes which are spread among the tree and lush greenery of the town. In the 1860's and the 1870's the area was permeated by the confrontation of settlers and the Nez Perce Indians over the gold on the Nez Perce reservation. The final result of this was the Battle of Bears Paw. In the 1890's settlers were drawn to the area by fertile land, good stock ranges, and a decent supply of lignite coal. It did not hurt that Chinook was the second largest city in the valley and was a large livestock, wool shipping point in Northern Montana with plenty of timber available. The Blaine County museum serves as the visitor center for the Bear Paw Battlefield (located South of Chinook) the site of the last battle of the four-month Nez Perce War of 1877. Exhibits in the museum include historic artifacts found at the Bear Paw Battlefield, time-period photographs, and military gear from the late 1800’s, items from the Homestead era and Hadrosaur, Gorgosaurus, and Edmontonia fossils from the area, along with the remains of gigantic marine reptiles Mosasaur and Plesiosaur. Another great museum in town is the Wildlife museum. In this facility you can see Montana state's wildlife species in their natural habitat in such groupings as Peaks to Plains, Wetlands, Buffalo Jump, Moose/Grizzly Encounter, Swift Fox and Nocturnal.