Pony is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northeastern Madison County, Montana, United States, on the eastern edge of the Tobacco Root Mountains. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 127. It includes the 192 acre Pony Historic District, a historic district with 95 contributing buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The town gained its name from one of its early miners, Tecumseth Smith, a man nicknamed "Pony" because of his diminutive size. Settled in the 1860s, Pony was a prosperous gold-mining community in the late nineteenth century, with at least 5,000 residents. Mining operations declined in the early 20th century, and all were closed by 1922. A number of historic buildings from Pony's boom era remain in the old town today. Major buildings are managed, voluntarily, by the Pony Homecoming Club, a non-profit organization that maintains the town's public spaces.

Geography

Montana Highway 283 (Pony Road) connects the town with U.S. Route 287 in Harrison, 6 mi to the northeast. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pony CDP has an area of 1.34 sqmi, all of it recorded as land. North Willow Creek flows through the community, running northeast and joining the Jefferson River south of Three Forks.

Education

The CDP is in the Harrison K-12 Schools school district.

Notable people

Former Montana Lieutenant Gov. Karl Ohs owned a ranch in Pony.