| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase |
| 1804-1806 | Lewis & Clark expedition |
| 1808 | David Thompson travels on Kootenai River. |
| 1810 | Finan McDonald party crossed the Rockies (probably at Marias Pass) |
| 1810-1811 | Joseph Howse built Howse House for the HBC |
| 1812 | General Land Office created, initiates survey of the west |
| 1813 | Pacific Fur Company sells to North West Company |
| 1821 | merger of HBC and North West Company |
| 1828-29 | Joshua Pilcher party wintered in Flathead Lake area |
| 1830s | decline of fur trade in Pacific Northwest |
| 1845 | settlement on Ashley Creek begun |
| 1846 | Oregon Treaty of 1846 signed |
| 1846 | HBC traders began operating in Tobacco Plains |
| 1847 | Fort Connah, HBC post, opened in the Mission Valley |
| 1848 | Oregon Territory created |
| 1849 | U. S. Department of Interior created |
| 1850 | John Owen established a trading post in the Bitterroot |
| 1852 | Benetsee Finlay found gold in Montana |
| 1853 | Tinkham party passes through Flathead Valley |
| 1853-54 | Stevens railroad surveys in western Montana |
| 1854 | John Mullan party passes through Flathead Valley |
| 1854 | St. Ignatius Mission founded |
| 1855 | Hellgate Treaty passed establishing Flathead Indian Reservation |
| 1857-1860 | British and American boundary surveys along 49th parallel |
| 1858 | Thomas Blakiston party passes through North Fork |
| 1859 | first steamboat traveled from St. Louis to Fort Benton by this year |
| 1859-62 | Mullan Road built |
| 1860 | Hellgate founded (Missoula area) |
| 1860 | Fort Kootenai in Tobacco Plains moved north of the boundary |
| 1862 | Homestead Act passed |
| 1862 | Gold discovered at Bannack |
| 1862 | U. S. Department of Agriculture established |
| 1863 | Idaho Territory formed, including what is now Montana |
| 1863 | Gold discovered at Alder Gulch |
| 1864 | Montana Territory formed |
| 1864 | Gold discovered at Last Chance Gulch and Butte |
| 1864 | Montana Territory created |
| 1864 | start of gold rush to Wild Horse in British Columbia |
| 1864 | federal government granted NPRR approximately 13 million acres in Montana |
| 1867 | rush to Libby Creek |
| 1867 | Gold discovered on Libby Creek |
| 1871 | Fort Connah, HBC post, closed in the Mission Valley |
| 1871 | fires in Wisconsin burned 400 square miles, killed over 1,000 people |
| 1872 | General Mining Act of 1872 passed |
| 1872 | first upper Flathead Valley post office established, at Scribner |
| 1875 | American Forestry Association organized |
| 1877 | Dawes Act opened reservations to white settlement |
| 1878 | Timber and Stone Act passed |
| 1870s | a few stock raisers lived in upper Flathead a few years |
| 1881 | Division of Forestry created within U. S. Department of Agriculture |
| 1883 | Northern Pacific Railroad reached Missoula |
| 1883 | Lt. John Van Orsdale recommended northern Rockies be a national park |
| 1884 | Ashley post office established |
| 1884 | Foy's Mill, water-powered sawmill, built in the Flathead |
| 1885 | first steamboat on Flathead Lake |
| 1885 | Canadian Pacific Railroad reached Calgary |
| 1887 | coal claims located on the Coal Banks in the North Fork |
| 1887 | Demersville founded |
| 1889 | forest fires burn large areas of northwest Montana |
| 1889 | Montana became a state |
| 1889 | Inter Lake first published |
| 1890 | Lt. Ahern and soldiers crossed the North Fork |
| 1891 | Great Northern Railway reached Flathead Valley |
| 1891 | coal discovered in the South Fork |
| 1891 | Kalispell founded |
| 1891 | Columbia Falls founded |
| 1891 | Forest Reserve Act passed |
| 1891 | Yellowstone Forest Reserve, first in the country, created |
| 1893 | Flathead County formed out of Missoula County |
| 1893 | Great Northern Railway transcontinental line completed |
| 1895 | Old Steel Bridge built over Flathead River east of Kalispell |
| 1895 | Montana State Fish and Game Commission formed |
| 1897 | Forest Reserve Act of 1897 passed |
| 1897 | Flathead and Lewis & Clarke Forest Reserves created |
| 1897 | start of Klondike gold rush |
| 1898 | Spanish-American War |
| 1898 | first American college of forestry opened at Cornell |
| 1901 | John O'Brien Lumber Company began production |
| 1901 | wagon road up east side of North Fork of Flathead built |
| 1901 | oil drilling in the Kintla Lake area |
| 1902 | Flathead Lumberman's Board of Trade organized |
| 1903 | oil drilling in the Swiftcurrent area |
| 1904 | Whitefish founded |
| 1904 | Great Northern Railway line relocated in Flathead Valley to the north end of the valley |
| 1905 | Administration of Forest Reserves transferred to Department of Agriculture |
| 1905 | Bureau of Forestry renamed Forest Service |
| 1905 | Forest Service Use Book issued |
| 1905 | Flathead National Forest headquarters moved from Ovando to Kalispell |
| 1905 | I. W. W. organized |
| 1906 | Forest Homestead Act opened some national forest lands to homesteaders |
| 1906 | Agricultural Appropriation bill passed |
| 1906 | first Forest Service phone line built (in Wyoming) |
| 1907 | Congress passed act prohibiting creation of additional forests from public domain within Montana and other states |
| 1907 | term forest reserves replaced by national forests |
| 1907 | I. W. W. strike at Somers Lumber Company mill |
| 1907-08 | first pack animals bought by FS for use in the northwest, brought to Big Prairie |
| 1908 | phone line between Kalispell and Coram built, first on Flathead National Forest |
| 1909 | Montana state board of forestry established |
| 1909 | I. W. W. strike at Somers Lumber Company mill |
| 1910 | Glacier National Park created by Congress |
| 1911 | Weeks Act, federal purchase of Forest lands to protect navigable streams |
| 1911 | Northern Montana Forestry Association formed |
| 1912 | Federal government mandated land classification of all national forest land |
| 1913-19 | 90 MMBF Forest Service timber sale in Swan Valley |
| 1914 | first fire lookout built on Flathead National Forest, on Spotted Bear Mountain |
| 1917 | IWW strike among loggers in the Pacific Northwest |
| 1917 | Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen formed |
| 1917 | U. S. involvement in World War I |
| 1917 | Northern Pacific Railroad line completed to Polson |
| 1917 | first automobile purchased for a Region One national forest |
| 1917 | I. W. W. strike among woodsworkers and mill workers in Pacific Northwest |
| 1918 | Prohibition began in Montana |
| 1918 | Sedition Act passed in Montana |
| 1918 | Stillwater, Swan River, and Coal Creek State Forests created |
| 1920s | first logging trucks used in the Flathead |
| 1923 | Spotted Bear Game Preserve created |
| 1924 | Clarke-McNary Act passed giving funds for cooperative fire protection |
| ca. 1925 | steamboat passenger travel on Flathead Lake ended |
| 1925 | first aerial fire patrol in Region One |
| mid-1920s | road from Coram to Spotted Bear built |
| mid-1920s | sawed railroad ties began to replace hewn ties |
| 1922 | first campground on Flathead National Forest land approved |
| 1926 | McSweeny-McNary Forest Research Act, provided for grazing fee reductions for allotment improvement |
| 1928 | Flathead Mine began production |
| 1929 | Half Moon fire |
| 1929 | stock market crash |
| 1929 | Superior Lumber Company of Columbia Falls began providing ready-cut lookouts |
| 1930 | Region One established a Remount Depot |
| 1930 | Knutson-Vandenberg Act passed allowing for cash deposits for timber stand improvement work |
| 1931 | last river drive in the Flathead |
| 1931 | South Fork Primitive Area established |
| 1933 | Flathead and Blackfeet National Forests consolidated |
| 1933 | Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established |
| 1933 | Prohibition repealed |
| 1933 | Pentagon Primitive Area established |
| 1934 | Taylor Grazing Act passed as a means to administer grazing on public lands |
| 1934-35 | Article X of the National Recovery Act mandatory |
| 1936 | Spotted Bear Game Preserve eliminated |
| 1938 | Fair Labor Standards Act mandated 40-hour work week |
| 1939 | President once again had authority to create forest reserves in Montana |
| 1939 | Flathead National Forest built first road up Big Mountain |
| 1940 | Bob Marshall Wilderness area designated |
| 1942 | CCC program ended |
| 1942 | coal mine in North Fork closed |
| 1942 | U. S. involvement in World War II |
| 1940s | lumber company tugboats on Flathead Lake ceased operation |
| 1944 | Sustained Yield Management Act passed |
| 1944 | smokejumping standard practice in Region One |
| 1945 | end of World War II |
| 1945 | Continental Unit (aerial forest fire control area) created |
| 1945 | first reduction in number of lookouts on Flathead National Forest |
| ca. 1945 | significant growth in Montana timber industry |
| 1946 | Flathead Mine closed |
| 1947 | Big Mountain Winter Sports incorporated |
| 1948 | hearings in Kalispell about proposed Glacier View Dam |
| late 1940s | Somers Lumber Company sawmill ceased operations |
| 1949 | severe windstorm damages much timber on Flathead National Forest |
| 1949-53 | Hungry Horse Dam constructed |
| early 1950s | insect infestation on Flathead National Forest timberlands resulting from blowdown of 1949 |
| 1953 | Region One Remount Depot began to be phased out |
| 1955 | Anaconda Aluminum Company plant went into production |
| 1956 | Montana's first pulp mill built, in Missoula area |
| 1957 | Forest Service established Operation Outdoors |
| 1960 | Multiple Use - Sustained Yield Act passed |
| 1969 | Northern Montana Forestry Association ceased operations |
