The name of the town is taken from a nearby mountain range called the Moccasin Mountain range. The name of the mountains come from the look with densely forested lodge pole pine trees; the
Native Americans thought they looked like
moccasins, thus giving the mountains and the town a name. Moccasin has also been hit hard by devastating wildfires that struck the area in 1916, 1919, 1922, and 1955. The town never really recovered from the fires, which burned an entire block of buildings. In 1908 the Montana State legislature created the MSU Central Agricultural Research Center, three miles west of Moccasin. The purpose of the center was to teach dry land farming techniques to the newly arrived homesteaders. Even after the homesteaders bust, the center went on to develop machinery and new crops, improving the area's wheat yields. ==Climate==