The Mont Terrible for which the département was named is now known as mont Terri, in Jura, Switzerland.

The département was created in 1793 with the annexation of the short-lived Rauracian Republic, created a few months earlier, in the previous year, from a part of the annexed Bishopric of Basel.

In 1797, the old principality of Montbéliard, formerly given to Haute-Saône, was reattached to Mont-Terrible.

The département was abolished in 1800, being annexed to the Haut-Rhin, within which it formed the two arrondissements of Delémont and Porrentruy.

In 1815, the territory that had previously formed part of Mont-Terrible was partitioned between Doubs (Montbéliard) and the Swiss canton of Bern (now forming the canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura).