Cooke City, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect pumpkin, cranberry, french tarragon, and zucchini to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cooke City, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cooke City lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Cooke City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cooke City — the short answer
Cooke City, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 79 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~79
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Cooke City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cooke City's 79-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cooke City
Each reading below is measured for Cooke City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCooke City runs about 79 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCooke City sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Cooke City is in
Cooke City sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cooke City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Park County.
What Grows in Cooke City
Every plant below cleared Cooke City's own zone 4b and its 79-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cooke City?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Cooke City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cooke City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mohawk WarriorMining · 0.8 mi
- Oro CacheMining · 0.9 mi
- FORMER BUCKSKIN INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RAYMOND B MUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GARY L BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NORTHEAST ENTRANCE GAS PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FORMER SERVICE STATION COOKE CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COOKE CITY SINCLAIR AND CABINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUSTERS SUMMIT PROVISIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- COOKE CITY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SODA BUTTE LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TOP OF THE WORLD GUIDE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cooke City's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Cooke City.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Cooke City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cooke City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cooke City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cooke City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Cooke City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Cooke City
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cooke City average
Your land is one point inside Cooke City
Everything above resolves to Cooke City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Cooke City Average
Cooke City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cooke City
- ●One soil character for all of Cooke City
- ●Frost dates read at Cooke City's scale: Jun 17 to Sep 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cooke City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cooke City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cooke City, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cooke City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cooke City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cooke City average
How we know this about Cooke City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cooke City’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cooke City
When does frost risk typically end in Cooke City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cooke City typically lands around Jun 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jul 8.
When is the first frost in Cooke City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cooke City typically arrives around Sep 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 21, so the watching starts about Aug 5 — about 79 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cooke City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cooke City sees about 79 frost-free days — roughly Jun 17 through Sep 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 8 to Aug 21, about 44 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cooke City?
The federal record around Cooke City runs heavier than most — 72 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (56), the nearest Mining record about 0.8 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Cooke City?
With about 79 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cooke City rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 107 to 135 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cooke City's scale — its 4b band and its 79-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cooke City's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cooke City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cooke City's own scale — its own ~79-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,102 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cooke City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cooke City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 17 and Sep 4 and the ~79-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cooke City, the closest Mining record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cooke City's boundary and the 6,102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~79-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cooke City's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cooke City's 6,102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Park County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Park County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Park County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cooke City's 6,102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cooke City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.8 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cooke City-wide figureread your own land →
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