The Montana Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in August 1883 as a result of a visit to Montana by National WCTU organizers Frances E. Willard and Anna A. Gordon. The delegates attending the initial meeting, representing Butte, Helena, Dillon, and White Sulphur Springs, elected "Mrs. Dr. Clark" as territorial president. By 1889, under the leadership of Laura E. Howey of Helena, the WCTU had grown to thirteen local unions and ten departments including Social Purity, Presentation of our Cause before Legislature and other Influential Bodies, Unfermented Wine at Sacrament, Purity in Literature and Art, and Alms House.

By 1910 the state union was growing rapidly with over 1000 members and it had diversified its concerns to include support for government aid for destitute mothers, teaching of domestic science in the schools, and opposition to the drinking of Coca-Cola which at that time contained cocaine.

With the national tide of enthusiasm for prohibition and other social reforms, the Montana WCTU membership grew to 4167 active members in 202 local unions by 1916. In addition the WCTU had a full-time lobbyist in the 1913 Legislative Assembly and was influential in its support of reform legislation, including placing woman's suffrage and statewide prohibition on the ballot.

However, the necessity of cooperating with other reform organizations brought dissension and attempts to alter WCTU principles. There was also a decline in activity following legal prohibition.

The WCTU entered a new period of enthusiasm in the late 1930s with the employment of several field workers. In 1947 the Montana Legislative Assembly passed a law authorizing a Narcotics Education Commission, but providing no funding. The WCTU spearheaded the fundraising campaign and was influential in the selection of the narcotics educator and in the development of her program. However, conflict over aims and methods arose between the WCTU and Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Ireland and the program gradually declined in effectiveness.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the women of the Montana WCTU continued to pursue their goal of statewide total abstinence in the face of increasing acceptance by Montanans of social drinking. By the 1970s, unable to attract younger members, the local unions were forced to dissolve. The state organization had ceased to exist by 1976.