Montana Well Data field records · 2026 survey

Montana Well Data · Well logs

Montana well logs

Every time a well is drilled in Montana, the driller files a completion report — the well log — with Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Ground Water Information Center (GWIC). We hold 295,987 of them and rebuild this index weekly, so you can find one by address instead of by record number.

✓ Verified against GWIC · 2026-07-27

295,987well logs indexed
60counties covered
1850–2026oldest to newest log on file
295,987link to the original filed log
Find the well logs near an address

Well logs are filed by location, not by house number. Enter any Montana address and we'll pull the recorded wells around it — wells are mapped to their section, roughly ±0.5 mi — not the exact wellhead.

Free address lookup Full property report — $19

What's in a Montana well log

Not every filed report carries every field — older logs are thinner, and what the state captured changed over the decades. This is the actual coverage across all 295,987 records, so you know what to expect before you look anything up.

FieldWhat it tells youRecords with itCoverage
Original log document A direct link to the GWIC copy of the filed log itself. 295,987 (100%)
Mapped location Coordinates, so the log can be found by address instead of by record number. 295,800 (100%)
Total depth How deep the hole was drilled, in feet. 286,688 (97%)
Date completed When the well was finished and the log filed. 280,869 (95%)
Static water level How far below the surface the water stood at rest. 243,377 (82%)
Drilling method Rotary, cable tool, auger, and so on. 233,801 (79%)
Tested yield Gallons per minute the well produced on the driller’s pump test. 233,526 (79%)
Driller The licensed company that drilled the well and signed the log. 228,966 (77%)

When Montana's wells were drilled

Dated logs by decade of completion (280,866 of 295,987 records carry a usable completion date). The shape of this chart is mostly the history of the filing requirement, not of drilling — thin early decades mean the logs weren't kept, not that nobody drilled.

DecadeLogs filed
1850s 2
1860s 106
1870s 136
1880s 365
1890s 441
1900s 1,512
1910s 3,893
1920s 2,744
1930s 3,908
1940s 8,512
1950s 13,476
1960s 15,837
1970s 32,371
1980s 28,094
1990s 49,829
2000s 57,509
2010s 36,099
2020s 26,032

Three ways to find a well log here

  1. By address — the free lookup maps an address to the wells recorded around it. This is what most people want: "how deep is the well on the place I'm buying."
  2. By county — each county page carries the median depth, water level and yield computed from every log filed there, plus the drillers working it.
  3. By driller — every log names the company that drilled the well, so the 441 Montana drillers in our directory each have a profile built from their own filed logs.

Well logs by county

Flathead County 21,944 logs · median 191 ft Ravalli County 21,925 logs · median 75 ft Gallatin County 19,725 logs · median 80 ft Lewis and Clark County 17,141 logs · median 105 ft Missoula County 15,566 logs · median 100 ft Yellowstone County 15,363 logs · median 35 ft Lincoln County 8,141 logs · median 145 ft Lake County 8,084 logs · median 180 ft Cascade County 7,161 logs · median 110 ft Madison County 6,624 logs · median 100 ft Park County 6,558 logs · median 108 ft Carbon County 6,458 logs · median 58 ft

See all 56 Montana counties →

Where these records come from

All of it is public record from the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Ground Water Information Center (GWIC), the state's official repository of well logs (mbmggwic.mtech.edu). We don't hold anything the state doesn't publish. More on that database and what a filed record carries: GWIC well records. What we add is that the records are indexed by location, the statistics are computed the same way in every county, and the whole thing is refreshed weekly. Our filters and the exact computation are on the methodology page (statistics use site type WELL, non-abandoned; depths 0–5,000 ft).

Common questions

Are Montana well logs public records?

Yes. Montana drillers are required to file a completion report for each well, and those reports are kept by Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Ground Water Information Center (GWIC). Anyone can look them up. This site is an independent index of that public record — we re-read the source and recompute every page weekly.

How do I find the well log for my property?

Well logs are filed by location, not by street address, so you search the map rather than a house number. Enter the address on our free lookup and you'll see the recorded wells around that spot — wells are mapped to their section, roughly ±0.5 mi — not the exact wellhead. Each one shows its depth, static water level, tested yield, and a link to the original filed log.

How far back do the records go?

The oldest dated log in our copy was completed in 1850; the newest is from 2026. Coverage thins out the further back you go — older wells were often never filed, and filing requirements tightened over time.

Why can't I find a log for my well?

Most likely it was never filed. Wells drilled before the state's reporting requirement — and hand-dug or unpermitted wells — have no log at all. It also happens that a log exists but its recorded location is off, in which case it will show up under a neighboring property. Neither is something we can fix from the source data, and we'd rather say so than invent a record.

What does a well log actually tell you?

The useful parts for a buyer or a homeowner: how deep the well is, how high the water stands in it, how many gallons per minute it produced when tested, what the driller hit on the way down, and who drilled it. Together those say whether the well is likely to keep producing and what a replacement would cost.

Need every log near one property, in one document?

The property report pulls every recorded well near an address — depths, water levels, yields, drillers , and links to each original filed log — as one printable summary for due diligence.

Property report — $19

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