I have a confession to make, and it's honestly
a bit embarrassing. Oh, I know exactly where
this is going. You know those nights when you
just can't sleep, and you've already doom -scrolled
through literally every social media feed you
have? Yeah, we've all been there. The 2 a .m.
scroll. Exactly. So I end up on map apps, just
kind of scrolling, aimlessly floating over the
country. Just panning across the digital globe.
Right. I'll start in my own neighborhood, I check
if my roof looks okay from space, and then I
just start drifting. over the Rockies and over
the Plains. And that is when you start noticing
them. The dots. The dots. These tiny little names
that pop up in the middle of absolute nowhere.
Places you have never heard of. Places that look
like they honestly shouldn't even be there. And
usually, I mean, I just keep scrolling, I assume
it's a gas station or maybe a single farmhouse
that just got lucky with Google's algorithm.
But that's the mistake right there, isn't it?
We assume the map is just a static picture. We
assume those dots are simple. Exactly. And that
is why we are here today. I really want to stop
scrolling. I want to grab the virtual pin and
drop it on one of these microscopic dots and
just refuse to leave until we understand what
is actually going on there. I love it. We're
going to stress test the map. We are. So for
this deep dive, we are looking at a place called
Forty Mile Colony, Montana. Forty Mile Colony.
I mean, even the name sounds like it belongs
in a totally different era. It sounds like a
way point for wagon trains or something. It really
does. But. Looking at the data we've pulled for
this deep dive, the census numbers, the geographical
data, the administrative codes, this isn't history.
This is a living, breathing anomaly. It's a puzzle
piece that doesn't quite fit the way we think
towns are supposed to work in America. That is
the perfect way to frame it. Our mission today
is to deconstruct this specific census designated
place. We want to understand how a community
of just a few dozen people, specifically a Hutterite
colony sitting right inside a Native American
reservation, navigates the modern world. So let's
orient ourselves for the listener. I'm looking
at the map right now, and it looks like a whole
lot of empty space. Where exactly have we landed?
Well, if you want to get super technical, we
are at 45 degrees, 16 minutes, 56 seconds north,
and 107 degrees, 21 minutes, 22 seconds west.
OK, wow. But let's translate that into something
human. We are in Big Horn County, Montana. Big
Horn County. Got it. Specifically, we're in the
valley of the Little Big Horn River. The Little
Big Horn. I mean, you really can't say that name
without feeling the weight of it. That is Custer's
last stand. That is pivotal American history.
Exactly. It is a landscape that is just heavy
with history. And physically, it's high plains.
The elevation is 3 ,438 feet, which is over 1
,000 meters up. So it's high up there. Yeah.
This isn't a lush green lowland. This is big
sky country. You've got rolling hills and scrubland
and very harsh winters. And looking at the proximity
to quote unquote civilization, it says here we
are about three miles south of a town called
Lodgegrass. Three miles, or about five kilometers.
So it's not completely isolated in the sense
that they're days away from help. But in terms
of the landscape, three miles in Montana can
feel like a very long distance. Right. OK, so
we have the physical setting. High plains, river
valley, near a small town. Yeah. But this is
where the source data gets messy. And by messy,
I mean fascinating. Because we aren't just in
a county are we no we are not and this is the
part that usually gets glossed over when people
look at demographics We are dealing with what
I like to call a jurisdictional layer cake. A
layer cake. That makes it sound delicious. But
this sounds a bit more like a headache for a
lawyer. Oh, a massive headache. Look at the boundaries.
Forty Mile Colony is in Big Horn County, yes.
It is in the state of Montana, yes. But the source
material explicitly notes that it is located
within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation.
Let's just pause and really look at that for
a second, because I think people hear the word
reservation. And they have a monolithic idea
of what that means. Right. They think it's just
federal land. Exactly. But the Crow Reservation
is a sovereign nation within a nation. It has
its own government, its own police, its own laws
regarding land use. And yet, sitting right there
inside those legal boundaries, you have 40 -mile
colony. Which brings us to the colony part of
the name. Yeah. The source identifies this location
specifically as a Hutterite colony. Now, for
the listener who might not be familiar, or who
maybe confuses them with the Amish, we really
need to clarify what that means. Crucial point.
The source actually points us to a document called
Essential Understandings of Montana Hutterites.
And that context changes everything about how
we interpret the data we're about to see. How
so? Well, Hutterites are an Anabaptist group.
They're ethereal religious. Like the Amish, they
do live separately from the English world to
a degree. Right. But unlike the Amish, they actually
embrace technology, especially for agriculture.
So they aren't out there driving horse -drawn
buggies. No, not at all. They are driving half
million dollar combines with GPS guidance systems
in the cabs. But, and this is the key for our
map, they live communally. Colony isn't just
a cool historical name here. It's a strict economic
definition. They hold all goods in common. There
are no personal bank accounts. Everyone works
for the colony, and the colony provides for everyone.
Okay, so go back to your layer cake analogy.
You have a communal, Germanic -speaking, religious
agricultural colony. Physically located on the
sovereign land of the Crow Nation. Inside a U
.S. county that is trying to count them for the
census. Exactly. It is a Venn diagram of jurisdiction
that feels like it shouldn't work, but somehow
it does. Just think about the infrastructure
for a second. If the road to the colony needs
paving, who pays for it? Is it the turbo county?
Is it the tribe? Is it the colony itself? It
really makes you realize that a dot on a map
isn't just a dot. It's this tight knot of legal
agreements and boundaries. They're very tight
knot. And that brings us to the label the federal
government slapped on it. The census designated
place or CDP. I see this term on Wikipedia all
the time. Whenever I'm doing my late night scrolling,
it always feels a bit fake to me. Like, is it
a town or not? It's not a town, not legally speaking
anyway. Forty Mile Colony doesn't have a mayor.
It doesn't have a city council or a municipal
charter. It's not incorporated. So why does the
Census Bureau even care? Why not just count them
as rural residents of Bighorn County and be done
with it? Because if they did that. the data would
lie to us. If you just scattered those people
into the general county math, you would lose
the reality of the community. What do you mean
by lose the reality? Well, a CDP is basically
a statistical lasso. The Census Bureau looks
at a cluster of people and says, hey, this functions
like a town. It acts like a community. So we
are going to draw an imaginary line around it
and count it as if it were a town. So it's almost
like a ghost town that's actually alive. That
is a great way to put it. It's the government
acknowledging that human geography doesn't always
perfect. match legal geography. But here is the
real kicker from our source material. 40 Mile
Colony was only listed as a CDP prior to the
2020 census. Wait, really? That recently? Yes.
2020. That means for decades this community likely
existed. The buildings were there. The people
were farming. They were doing their thing. But
statistically speaking... They were invisible.
They were just rural noise in the county data.
And suddenly in 2020... the Eye of Sauron, or,
well, the Census Bureau turned its gaze and said,
I see you. And they gave them a box, a statistical
box, which finally allows us to look inside that
box. OK, let's look inside the box then, because
this is the part that completely blew my mind
when I first read the data sheet. We are talking
about a place with a capital P -A, officially
recognized community. So how many people are
we actually talking about here? 500. A thousand.
According to the 2020 census, the total population
of 40 -mile colony is 28. 28 people. 28. I have
to be honest here. My first reaction to reading
that was, why are we even talking about this?
I mean, 28 people is a large dinner party. It's
a single kindergarten class. How is this a place?
It completely challenges our definition of community,
doesn't it? We are so used to thinking bigger
is better, or at least bigger is more valid.
But you have to look at the map to understand
why this is fascinating. It's not just the number
of people, it's where they are and how they are
arranged. Right, because my assumption for rural
Montana is that 28 people would be spread out
over, I don't know, 50 miles. One ranch here
and another ranch... 10 miles down the dirt road.
Precisely. That is the standard rural model we
all picture. But look at the area measurement
provided in the source. The total area of the
40 -mile colony CDP is 0 .19 square miles. 0
.19. I can't even visualize that. Help me out
here. OK. So 0 .19 square miles is about 120
acres. And it's all land, by the way. Zero square
miles of water. OK. But think of it this way.
It's roughly the size of a medium shopping mall
parking lot. or maybe two average city blocks
in Manhattan. Two city blocks, so it's tiny.
It is an absolute postage stamp on the map. Now
put those 28 people inside that postage stamp.
If you do the math, the population density works
out to 146 .4 people per square mile. 146 people
per square mile. Out in the Montana high plains.
Exactly. And for context, the population density
of Bighorn County as a whole is about two people
per square mile. Whoa. So statistically speaking,
40 -mile colony is incredibly dense. It is an
island of density in a sea of emptiness. And
this is where the Hutterite context we talked
about earlier really proves itself in the numbers.
The math confirms the lifestyle. Because they
aren't living on separate 500 -acre family homesteads.
No, they are not. They are heavily clustered.
This density metric tells us, without us ever
needing to see a satellite photo, that these
28 people are living in a tight grouping of buildings.
We're talking dormitories, communal kitchens.
shared workshops. They're living village -style
lives. Yes, village -style lives right in the
middle of the open landscape. It really paints
a vivid picture for you. You can imagine driving
your car through that reservation land. You're
seeing miles of grass and rolling hills, maybe
a stray horse here or there, and then suddenly
boom. A complex. Right, a complex. Lights, activity
machinery. 28 people living shoulder to shoulder.
It's a highly distinct node of civilization.
And even though it is small, that density creates
a center of gravity, it's enough to get plugged
into the national system. It's enough to get
a zip kind. Speaking of zip codes, let's talk
about the digital tether. The source document
goes deep into these government codes. FIPS,
G -A -N -A -S. It honestly felt a bit like reading
the Matrix code for a minute. I know it can be
a bedrider read. But think of those codes as
the invisible plumbing of the nation. Even a
community of 28 people needs to be plugged into
the grid. So they share the zip code 59050 with
Lodgegrass, right? Correct, which makes total
sense since they are neighbors. And the area
code is the classic Montana 406. But the codes
that really matter, the ones that prove this
place exists to the government, are the ones
you don't ever put on an envelope. You mean the
FIPPES code? The FIPPES, Federal Information
Processing Standards. The specific code for 40
Mile Colony is 3828725. Now why does that matter?
Why should the listener listening right now care
about a random string of numbers? Because without
that number to the federal government, this place
straight up doesn't exist. That code is its digital
DNA. Okay, give me an example. Let's say there
is a massive blizzard. A real Montana whiteout.
And the governor declares a state of emergency,
so federal relief funds get released. How does
the computer system know exactly where to send
the money or track the aid? The FIPSB's code.
Exactly. The database doesn't care about the
name. It cares about 30 -28725. Or take the GNIS
ID, which is 2806613. What does GNIS stand for
again? It's the Geographic Names Information
System. That is the ID tag in the master database
of the U .S. Geological Survey. If you are a
pilot flying a plane and using digital charts,
or if you are using a GPS to route a delivery
truck, that ID is what confirms that this specific
point on Earth has an official name. It's weirdly
philosophical when you think about it. You can
have the people, you can have the communal buildings,
you can have the history, but until you get the
code, you aren't quote unquote official. We live
in a world of databases. If you want in the database,
you are effectively invisible. And that brings
us right back to that 2020 date we discussed.
Right. Before 2020, they didn't have the code.
They likely didn't have the specific recognition
as a census designated place. They were just
counted as generic people in the county. Getting
these specific codes, becoming a CDP, is a statistical
rite of passage. It is the exact moment the system
says you are distinct. It makes me really wonder
about the why. Like, why draw the line now? Why
in 2020? It could be any number of administrative
reasons. Maybe the tribe needed better data on
who exactly was living within the reservation
boundaries. Makes sense. Or maybe the state needed
better granularity for water rights or for school
districting. Data isn't neutral. It is collected
for a reason. Someone somewhere needed to count
these 28 people separately. You know, we started
this whole deep dive by talking about aimlessly
scrolling map apps late at night. But I feel
like I am never going to look at a random dot
the same way again. That is exactly the goal.
We took a dot that looked like absolutely nothing.
And what did we find? We found a Hutterite colony
living communally. We found a population density
that rivals a suburb just sitting right in the
middle of a sovereign Native American nation.
And we found a community that was statistically
invisible until just a few years ago. It is a
massive reminder that the map is incredibly deep.
Every single one of those names, even the ones
in a tiny four point font that you almost scroll
right past, has a complex story just like this
one. It's the invisible city concept. It really
is. And I want to leave the listener with a final
thought here, something to chew on. We found
40 Mile Colony today because it finally got a
code in 2020. It popped up on the radar. So what
is still off the radar? That is a very good question.
How many other communities of 28 people or maybe
50 or 100 people are out there right now functioning
exactly like towns living their lives entirely
under the radar because they haven't been drawn
yet? How many 40 mile colonies are we scrolling
past simply because they don't have a label?
The map isn't finished. The map is never finished.
We just stopped drawing for a while. Well, on
that note, I think I am actually going to go
back to my map app tonight. But I am definitely
going to zoom in a little closer this time. Find
us another dot to dive into. I definitely will.
Thanks for taking this micro journey into the
high plains with us. Always a pleasure.