Sumatra, Montana

Sumatra is a small, unincorporated village in far northwestern Rosebud County, Montana, USA, along the route of U.S. Highway 12. The town was established in 1908 as a station stop on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, then under construction in Montana. Although the land around Sumatra attracted numerous homesteaders during the decade following the railroad's completion, the region proved to be far too arid and inhospitable for intensive agricultural use, and by the 1920s the town was in decline. The railroad through the area was abandoned in 1980, and today Sumatra is nearly deserted, with most buildings razed.