Welcome to Custer, Montana
Custer is a friendly town along the Yellowstone River, where visitors can enjoy agate hunting, fishing and rustic Boothill Cemetery. Nearby, at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers, is the site of Fort Manuel Lisa, the first building in Montana built by white men.
The town was very prettily located along the bank of the Yellowstone... so wrote a steamboat captain about Junction City in the 1880s. Not much remains of Junction today some old bottles and buttons and lots of tall tales but the same quote can be said of Custer, the offshoot of Junction, born as the Yellowstone washed away at her.
The Manuel Lisa fishing access is about 4.5 miles east of Custer. The area is about 34 acres of shady bottomland. Exit off I-94 at the Montana Highway 47 exit. Travel two miles east on the Frontage Road. Buffalo berry bushes offer tiny, ripened, orange-red berries in late August. Watch the thorns that protect each cluster.
Ling, the eel-like fish with the strange appearance and the delicious flavor of lobster, are caught in the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers from the end of November to the end of February. Minnows and worms are the bait to use. Custer, just minutes away from the confluence of these two rivers, has many resident experts who can provide the angler with directions and tips.
This is also a prime agate hunting area. Floating the river allows recreationists to search the many sand and gravel bars along the shore as well as those exposed in midstream.
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