Flathead Lake Biological Station (University of Montana)

Morton Elrod chose this shore in 1899, when the only other biological field station in the Rocky Mountain region was in New Mexico. What he built became the second oldest biological field station in the United States and the longest-running freshwater field station in year-round operation in North America. The station moved from Bigfork to its current Yellow Bay location in 1909 and has been monitoring Flathead Lake's ecology ever since. It's open to the public — and the research happening here is the reason the lake is still worth visiting.