Central Montana's vibrant manufacturing center reaches global markets

Situated in the geographic center of Montana in the midst of rolling hills, farms, and ranches is something a little unexpected: one of the most vibrant manufacturing communities in the state. With a population of about 6,500, Lewistown has a cluster of companies that design, engineer, and manufacture products for airports, oil companies, federal agencies, food distribution centers, sports arenas, hospitals, banks, schools, the military, and the aerospace industry, to name a few. Together, the group supports nearly 500 manufacturing jobs in the Lewistown area. One Lewistown business, Century Companies Inc, has about 175 employees and does everything from paving streets to building subdivisions and airports throughout the rural West and "hangs its hat" on manufacturing a raw material into a finished product, according to Century's CEO Tim Robertson. In the late-1970s, key people -- like Jack Morgenstern who started Century Companies and is a mainstay Spike in the community -- began to move to Lewistown to start companies.