HD 412 covers the Hi-Line country around Malta and the Milk River drainage—classic northern Montana wheat-and-prairie country with the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, the Beaver Creek drainage, and the south fringe of the Fort Belknap Reservation just to the west. Elevations run from about 2,200 feet on the Milk River bottom up to 3,200 feet on the higher prairie ridges and the Larb Hills/Little Rocky Mountains country drifting south. The country is mostly open: dryland wheat, summer-fallow, CRP grass, native bunchgrass-and-sage prairie, with cottonwood-and-willow corridors along the Milk and the Beaver Creek bottoms. Mule deer use the breaks and the rocky outcrops where the prairie drops into creek bottoms; whitetail concentrate in the Milk River bottom and the irrigated cottonwood patches; pronghorn work the open dryland in real numbers (this is some of the best pronghorn country in MT); a handful of elk filter through from the Little Rockies. Almost entirely private—old Hi-Line ranching and farming country—with the Bowdoin NWR providing some public ground (refuge regs apply), scattered DNRC state sections, and small BLM tracts. Block Management is critical and the Hi-Line BMA enrollments here have historically been good but tags fill fast. US-2 east-west is the spine; secondary highways and county/section roads grid out from Malta. Malta has gas, motels, the Great Northern Hotel, a grocery, a hospital, the dinosaur museum (the GMR site at the old Phillips County Museum is worth a stop). Glasgow is east, Havre west. Cell service holds along US-2 and weakens on the back roads. Section roads can gumbo with rain. The marquee opportunity here is pronghorn early season—the country produces good bucks for hunters who put in the windshield miles.