HD 419 covers the far northeast corner of Montana around Westby and Medicine Lake—the Big Muddy Creek drainage, the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and the prairie pothole country running up to the Saskatchewan and North Dakota borders. Elevations run from about 2,000 feet on the Big Muddy bottom to 2,500 feet on the higher prairie ridges. This is genuinely flat country—the eastern Montana prairie at its most subdued—dryland wheat, summer-fallow, CRP grass, native prairie, with the prairie pothole wetlands of Medicine Lake NWR providing one of the more important waterfowl-production areas on the continent. Cottonwoods and willows line the Big Muddy and the smaller creek drainages. Mule deer concentrate in the few timbered breaks and the rocky outcrops; whitetail in the cottonwood corridors and brushy ag-edge cover; pronghorn work the dryland in respectable numbers; the upland-bird hunting (sharptails, Huns, pheasant) is excellent. Mostly private with the Medicine Lake NWR providing significant public access (refuge regs apply, big-game hunting is allowed under specific seasons/rules), DNRC state sections, and small BLM tracts. Block Management is critical. US-2 and MT-16 are the paved arteries; section roads handle the rest. Plentywood is southwest with full Hi-Line town services. Westby is a tiny border outpost. Medicine Lake village has gas and basic supplies. Cell service is decent along US-2 and weakens elsewhere. The prairie pothole country here is unique in MT for big-game hunting—a hunter who layers waterfowl, upland, whitetail, and pronghorn into one trip can have a remarkable five-day eastern Montana experience.