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A state of the northwest United States bordering on Canada. It was admitted as the 41st state in 1889. Most of the area passed to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and was explored by Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806. Split for many years among other western territories, the region was organized as the Montana Territory in 1864. Helena is the capital and Billings the largest city. Population: 945,000.
Montanan Mon·tan'an adj. & n.
For more information on Montana, visit Britannica.com.
A land of contrast, Montana's 147,138 square miles contain both vast prairies and towering heights (including the 12,799-foot Granite Peak, the state's highest elevation). Much of the history of the state, which is poor in water but rich in natural resources, has been connected to the extractive industries and the problem of aridity.
First Peoples
More than twelve thousand years ago, small bands of hunters and gatherers lived in present-day Montana in the northern Rocky Mountain foothills and in the Great Plains that lie east of the Continental Divide. The region was part of the Louisiana Purchase when the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed it in 1805, following the Missouri River to its headwaters and later exploring the Marias and Yellowstone Rivers. The expedition spent one quarter of its journey within the state's current borders. In the Rocky Mountains, the expedition met probable descendants of Montana's early inhabitants as well as some of the area's more recent Native immigrants. Native cultures changed in the eighteenth century because of two major stimuli: the introduction of horses (brought or traded north by southwestern Indians who had obtained them from the Spanish) and guns (brought or traded west and south by eastern tribes who acquired them from British and French fur traders). European settlements to the east also indirectly affected the region's peoples as displaced eastern tribes pushed west. The resultant competition for rich hunting grounds, cultural factors (such as the honor accorded successful warriors), and the desire for the guns and horses owned by competing tribes combined to produce a period of intense intertribal warfare that lasted well into the nineteenth century.
The Fur Trade
Fur traders likely entered Montana before the arrival of Lewis and Clark, but competition for fur heightened after that expedition. In 1807, the St. Louis–based trader Manuel Lisa built a trading post at the confluence of the Big-horn and Yellowstone Rivers, the first permanent building constructed in Montana. A year later, the Canadian North West Company established a trading post near present-day Libby, Montana. The race for fur was on.
The fur trade was the dominant European industry in the region from 1807 through the 1850s and radically transformed tribal life. Tribes such as the Crows and the Blackfeet joined a global market economy as they began to hunt for furs—first beaver and then buffalo—to trade with the Europeans. The fur economy created new routes to status within the tribes and transformed internal tribal politics. Exposure to diseases such as smallpox, to which Native Americans had little immunity, decimated many bands; for example, an estimated 50 percent of the Blackfeet died in an 1837 epidemic. In addition, the trade brought easy access to liquor, which quickly became a destructive force.
Although the fur trade had a tremendous impact on Native Americans, it brought relatively few non-Indians to the region. Administratively, the eastern two-thirds of Montana was part of Missouri Territory until 1821, Indian Country until 1854, and Nebraska Territory until 1861, but in fact, there was little government presence with the exception of occasional road building and military expeditions.
The Mining Frontier
White settlement began in earnest following the discovery of gold in 1862 in present southwest Montana at Bannack, now a state park. An 1863 strike in Alder Gulch produced an estimated $35 million in gold during the first five years of mining. Gold fever brought approximately ten thousand people to the region by 1865, many of them from the goldfields of Idaho and California. Booming population expansion created the need for additional governmental services; to provide them, the federal government carved Idaho Territory from the Washington, Nebraska, and Dakota territories in 1863. Continuing growth led to the organization of Montana Territory on 26 May 1864, with first Bannack and then Virginia City as its capital. Other gold strikes followed, including in 1864 a major discovery in Last Chance Gulch (later called Helena), which became Montana's third territorial capital in 1875.
Although the image of the lone prospector dominates the myth of western mining, industrialized mining arrived early on the scene. Hydraulic mining, which used water from high-pressure hoses to wash away whole stream banks, and floating dredges, which mined the bottom of the rivers, required heavy capital investment and caused substantial environmental damage. Even more labor and capital intensive was quartz-lode mining, with its enormous stamp mills, smelters, and other expensive equipment.
In the 1870s, silver replaced gold as Montana's principle source of mineral wealth. The state became the nation's second largest producer of silver by 1883. Silver mining suffered a serious blow during the panic of 1893, however, when President Grover Cleveland ended mandatory government purchases of silver. Thereafter, copper dominated Montana's mining economy.
Mining wealth encouraged railroad construction, which in turn made possible larger mining operations. In 1881 the Union Pacific entered Butte (the heart of Montana's copper enterprises). The Northern Pacific crossed Montana in 1883; the Great Northern connected Butte to St. Paul in 1889. The Milwaukee Road, a relative late-comer, completed its line through Montana in 1909.
As railroads raced across the Plains and miners and the merchants who "mined the miners" poured into Montana Territory, tribal peoples found themselves under increasing pressure. Racism abounded and food was increasingly scarce, as the availability of game (particularly buffalo) declined due to overhunting, competition with horses and cattle for grazing land, and the introduction of exotic bovine diseases. Although the tribes most often negotiated political solutions, two legendary acts of Indian resistance to white incursion occurred in Montana Territory during the 1870s: the Great Sioux War of 1876– 1877, which included the most famous battle in the Indian wars, the Battle of the Little Bighorn; and the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Neither resistance nor negotiation worked particularly well. Montana's Indian tribes lost most of their lands—including much of the territory guaranteed by early treaties as permanent reserves. For example, an 1855 treaty recognized the Blackfeet's claim to two-thirds of eastern Montana (although the tribe, in turn, agreed to allow whites to live in and cross their territory). A series of subsequent treaties and executive orders reduced their reservation to a fraction of its former size. And when the buffalo approached extinction in the 1880s, starvation was the result. According to the historian John Ewers, an estimated one-sixth to one-fourth of the Piegan Blackfeet died of hunger in 1883–1884.
Another blow to Montana's Indians was the 1887 Dawes General Allotment Act, which opened reservation lands to white settlement after "allotting" 160-acre parcels to Indian heads of households. Applied unevenly and at various times, the policy of allotment affected each tribe differently. On the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana, for example, the sale of "excess" land to non-Indians during the homestead boom of the 1910s left members of the Salish and Kootenai tribes owning less than half of the land on their reservation. In 2000, enrolled tribal members made up only 26 percent of the reservation's population.
Indians, primarily from ten tribes (Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Chippewa, Cree, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kootenai, Lakota or Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Salish), were the state's largest minority in 2000, at 7.3 percent of the population. Many lived on one of Montana's seven Indian reservations (Blackfeet, Crow, Flathead, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Northern Cheyenne, and Rocky Boy's), though tribal members also live in Missoula, Great Falls, Billings, and other Montana communities.
The Cattle Boom and Sheep Industry
Territory opened by the removal of Indians to reservations included rich grazing land. Large, corporate ranches—financed mainly by wealthy speculators—brought longhorns from Texas to feed on the area's expansive grasslands in the 1880s, supplementing older cattle operations established primarily by former prospectors. According to one source, at the peak of the open-range boom in 1886, approximately 664,000 cattle and 986,000 sheep grazed on Montana rangelands.
The legendary days of the open range—commemorated by Montana's "cowboy artist" Charles M. Russell—suffered a blow during 1886–1887, when summer drought and a long, cold winter struck the overcrowded range to cause the death of approximately 60 percent of Montana's cattle. Cattle remained an important industry, but increasingly ranchers began to grow hay to see their animals through the winters. The homesteading boom decreased the availability of open range, but the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act provided a boon to ranchers hard hit by the depression by allowing livestock to graze on public land.
Less celebrated than the cattle industry, the sheep industry in Montana also thrived and then declined. In 1900, Montana's six million sheep made it the biggest wool-producing state in the union. Eventually, however, foreign competition, the popularity of synthetic fibers, and an end to wool subsidies caused the number of sheep in Montana to drop from 5.7 million head in 1903 to 370,000 head in January 2000.
The Rise of Copper
Even at their height, the sheep and cattle industries could not rival the growth brought by copper. The discovery of rich veins of copper in Butte in the 1880s coincided with an expanding demand for the metal fueled by the electrical revolution and the growing need for copper wire. By 1889, Butte was the nation's largest copper producer and the biggest city between Minneapolis and Seattle. Perhaps the most ethnically diverse city in the intermountain west, Butte was known as the "Gibraltar of Unionism." The Western Federation of Miners, whose leaders later helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, was founded there in 1893. In 1912 even Butte's two chimneysweeps had their own union. Twenty-six miles west, Butte's sister town of Anaconda, founded by the Anaconda Copper Company in 1884, processed the ore wrested from the "richest hill on earth," while poisonous gases bellowing from its stacks killed crops, cattle, and forests for miles around.
Rivalry between two of Butte's "copper kings" profoundly effected statewide politics. Marcus Daly, owner of the Anaconda Company, successfully opposed copper magnate William Clark's 1888 run for territorial delegate and 1893 senate campaign, a race marked by massive corruption. Clark retaliated in 1894, successfully backing Helena as the permanent site of the state capital in opposition to Daly's choice of Anaconda.
Copper continued as a force in Montana politics after the state's copper mines and smelters were consolidated under the control of the directors of Standard Oil in 1899. The Company, as the conglomerate was often called, offered its most naked display of power in 1903 when it closed its operations and put 15,000 men out of work until the governor called a special session of the legislature to enact the legislation it demanded. In addition to its mining interest, the Company operated large logging operations to feed the mines' voracious appetite for lumber.
Even after it severed its ties to Standard Oil in 1915, the Company remained a political force. It controlled most of the state's major newspapers until 1959, and, some believed, many of the state's politicians. Unlike Clark and Daly, the directors of the Company in the teens actively opposed unionism. With the help of state and federal troops, which occupied Butte six times between 1914 and 1920, the Company completely crippled the miners' unions until a resurgence of labor activity during the 1930s.
Open-pit mining—initiated in the 1950s after the richest copper veins had played out—transformed Butte. While Butte shrank (open-pit mining employed fewer people than did traditional hardrock mining), the Company's Berkeley Pit grew, consuming entire neighborhoods. Low copper prices, declining concentrations of ore, reduced industrial use of copper, and increasing global competition led to the closure of the Anaconda smelter in 1980 and the shutdown of mining activity in Butte in 1983, leaving Butte and Anaconda economically and environmentally devastated. When mining resumed in the mid-1980s, it was as a small-scale, nonunion operation. In 2000, mining operations again ceased, due to high energy costs and low copper prices. The Butte and Anaconda region hosted the largest Superfund cleanup site in the United States, and jobs in reclamation were an important part of the area's sluggish economy.
The Homestead Era
With the homestead boom of 1909 to 1919, agriculture surpassed mining as the state's major source of income. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 offered farmers 320 acres of free land. A second law passed in 1912 made it easier for homesteaders to "prove up." The railway companies, which foresaw a lucrative business in transporting crops to market and supplying settlers, conducted a massive advertising campaign and Montana quickly became "the most homesteaded state in the union." As the state's population ballooned from approximately 243,000 in 1900 to a high of approximately 770,000 in 1918, local governments multiplied, from sixteen counties at the time of statehood in 1889 to fifty-six by 1926.
Wartime inflation, resultant high prices, and relatively wet years through 1917 produced unprecedented prosperity for Montana's farmers. However, a six-year drought beginning in 1918 and the collapse of commodity prices in 1920 exposed the weakness of the homesteading economy. Montana's arid lands simply could not support small-scale farming. Between 1919 and 1925, more than half of Montana farmers lost their land and over 60,000 people left the state.
Wet weather after 1926 provided some help to those who stayed, but the agricultural depression of the 1920s grew into the Great Depression of the 1930s, when drought and falling prices again pushed farmers from the land. Nevertheless, agriculture—primarily wheat and beef—still dominates the landscape: Montana is second among states in the number of acres devoted to agriculture. However, as the depopulation of the eastern two-thirds of Montana attests, this increasingly industrialized enterprise requires fewer and fewer workers. In 2000, agriculture employed less than 6 percent of Montanans.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression hit Montana hard, as mining, smelting, and logging slowed to a halt. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs provided welcome relief. The federal government sent over $523 million to Montana (approximately 27 percent in loans), making Montana the union's second most subsidized state. The money arrived through payments to farmers; construction projects such as the massive Fort Peck Dam, which in 1936 employed more than 10,000 people; rural electrification loans to farmers' cooperatives; and direct relief. Federal jobs programs, according to the historian Michael Malone, provided income to a quarter of Montana households by 1935.
The New Deal also brought a shift in federal Indian policy. After decades of trying to "assimilate" Native Americans, the federal government recognized the value of tribal sovereignty with the Wheeler-Howard Act, cosponsored by Montana senator Burton K. Wheeler. In addition, the New Deal brought employment and infrastructure improvements to Montana's reservations through the formation of the Indian Conservation Corps.
Post–world War II Montana
Commodity prices rose with the beginning of World War II, bringing economic recovery to Montana. The state, however, lost population as young men and women joined the armed forces or found work in the war industries on the West Coast. Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls—which employed approximately 4,000 people in 2001—was established during World War II, but the military-industrial complex had less impact on Montana's economy than it did on other western states.
The 1950s through the 1970s saw booms in petroleum, tourism, wood products, and coal industries. The oil industry—concentrated along the "hi-line" (Montana's northern tier) in the 1910s and 1920s—moved east with the discovery of the oil-rich Williston Basin. Three large refineries opened in Billings, which became the state's largest city by 1960. Jobs in government, tourism, and healthcare helped the city maintain this status despite the oil market crash in the 1980s.
Tourism boomed in the prosperous postwar period, building on its earlier significance to the state (Yellow-stone National Park was established in 1872, Glacier National Park in 1910). In the 1950s, the timber industry, centered in the rich forests west of the Continental Divide, transformed into a genuine wood-products industry (manufacturing plywood, cardboard, and particle board), making it one of Montana's few value-added industries, albeit one with a large environmental cost. The construction of missile silos and dams and the infusion of highway money played a major role in the state's economy during the 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s energy crisis encouraged coal production in southeastern Montana, which claims 13 percent of the nation's coal reserves. In 1971, 7 million tons of coal were mined in Montana; by 1980, that figure had skyrocketed to 30 million, well over half of it from federally owned land.
The Role of the Federal Government
The federal government has always been important to Montana. Examples of early federal policies that have shaped Montana include Indian removal, railroad subsidies, an 1872 mining law (still in effect today, and the source of much controversy) that encourages the development of mineral resources, the homestead acts, timber sales at below-market value from the national forests, and the creation of national parks and wilderness areas. Despite the myth of the independent westerner and many Montanans' deep-seated distrust of "big government," the federal government remains crucial in shaping Montana's economy. In 1969, Montana received $1.88 from Washington ($1.59 in 2000) for every $1.00 its residents paid in taxes. Federal payments to farmers, for example, made up 22 percent of total agricultural receipts in 1999.
Politics
Remarkably corrupt and dominated by copper, Montana has displayed what many have deemed "political schizophrenia" through much of its history, sending conservatives to Helena and liberals to Washington. Many of Montana's representatives on the national level have become quite prominent: Senator Thomas Walsh, who led the investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal; Representative Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress; and Senator Mike Mansfield, the Senate's longest-ruling majority leader.
Since state senators were elected by county, rather than by population, rural Montana dominated the legislature through the 1960s, leading to charges of "one cow, one vote" and court-ordered reapportionment. A constitutional convention to revise the original 1889 state constitution followed. A remarkably progressive document, the 1972 constitution enshrined the rights to privacy and "a clean and healthful environment," and committed the state to the preservation of "the unique and distinct cultural heritage of American Indians."
At the end of the twentieth century, Montana's politics moved increasingly rightward, as evidenced by the election of the conservative senator Conrad Burns in 1988, and his reelections in 1994 and 2000. Another political trend was tribal governments' determination to assert sovereignty on the reservations and their increasing willingness to resort to the courts when necessary to accomplish it.
Facing a New Century
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Montana remained a low-population, high-acreage state, the most "non-metropolitan state in the nation," according to a 1999 study. The fourth largest state in the union, Montana ranks forty-fourth in population, with (according to the 2000 census) 902,195 residents. Energy deregulation, passed by the legislature in 1997, was followed by soaring energy prices and shutdowns in the wood-products, mining, and refining industries. Tourism—which barely trailed agriculture as the second largest segment of the economy—continued to grow in importance. Remaining dependent on the federal government, beset by frequent droughts, and prey to the cyclical nature of an economy based on natural resource extraction, the state—listed as forty-seventh in per capita income in 1999—faced an uncertain economic future.
Bibliography
Bennett, John W., and Seena B. Kohl. Settling the Canadian-American West, 1890–1915: Pioneer Adaptation and Community Building. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Bryan, William L., Jr. Montana's Indians, Yesterday and Today. 2nd rev. ed. Helena, Mont.: American World and Geographic, 1996.
Dobb, Edwin. "Pennies from Hell: In Montana, the Bill for America's Copper Comes Due." Harper's 293 (October 1996): 39–54.
Greene, Jerome A. Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2000.
MacMillan, Donald. Smoke Wars: Anaconda Copper, Montana Air Pollution, and the Courts, 1890–1920. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2000.
Malone, Michael P. Montana: A Contemporary Profile. Helena, Mont.: American World and Geographic, 1996.
Malone, Michael P., ed. Montana Century: 100 Years in Pictures and Words. Helena, Mont.: Falcon, 1999.
Malone, Michael P., Richard B. Roeder, and William L. Lang. Montana: A History of Two Centuries. Rev. ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Murphy, Mary. Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914–41. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Rankin, Charles E., ed. Legacy: New Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 1996.
Facts and Figures
Area, 147,138 sq mi (381,087 sq km). Pop. (2000) 902,195, a 12.9% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Helena. Largest city, Billings. Statehood, Nov. 8, 1889 (41st state). Highest pt., Granite Peak, 12,799 ft (3,904 m); lowest pt., Kootenai River, 1,800 ft (549 m). Nickname, Treasure State. Motto, Oro y Plata [Gold and Silver]. State bird, Western meadowlark. State flower, bitterroot. State tree, Ponderosa pine. Abbr., Mont.; MT
Geography
Life in Montana's mountainous western area differs greatly from that on its eastern plains. Across the eastern half of the state stretch broad sections of the Great Plains, drained by the Missouri River, which originates in SW Montana, and by its tributaries, the Milk, the Marias, the Sun, and especially the Yellowstone. Much of Montana's western boundary is marked by the crest of the lofty Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mts., which dominate the western section of the state and along which runs the Continental Divide. Montana's very name is derived from the Spanish word montaña, meaning mountain country.
Much of the fourth largest U.S. state is still sparsely populated country dominated by spectacular nature. High granite peaks, forests, lakes, and such wonders as those of Glacier National Park attract many visitors to Montana. Other places of interest include Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Big Hole National Battlefield, and Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site (see National Parks and Monuments, table) and the National Bison Range, near Ravalli, where herds of buffalo may be seen. Strips of Yellowstone National Park, including the north and west entrances, are also in Montana, as are such Native American reservations as the Blackfoot, the Fort Belknap, the Fort Peck, and the Crow. Rushing mountain streams and numerous lakes bring fishing enthusiasts to the state, and the abundant wildlife—elk, deer, bear, moose, and waterfowl—attracts hunters. Mountain and ski resorts draw other vacationers.
Economy
In and around Montana's mountainous western region are the large mineral deposits for which the state is famous—copper, silver, gold, platinum, zinc, lead, and manganese. The eastern part of the state is noted for its petroleum and natural gas, and there are also vast subbituminous coal deposits, worked largely at the most extensive U.S. open-pit mines. Montana also mines vermiculite, chromite, tungsten, molybdenum, and palladium. Leading industries manufacture forest products, processed foods, and refined petroleum.
In E Montana the high grass of the Great Plains once nourished herds of buffalo and later sustained the cattle and sheep of huge ranches; much of the high grass is now gone, but the cattle and sheep remain. Periodic drought and severe weather have turned some farming communities into ghost towns, but agriculture, with the aid of irrigation, still provides the largest share of Montana's income. Wheat is the most valuable farm item, with cattle also of primary importance. Other principal crops include barley, sugar beets, and hay.
Government and Higher Education
In 1973 a new constitution took effect, replacing the one adopted in 1889. The governor is elected for a term of four years and may be reelected. The legislative assembly is made up of a senate with 50 members and a house of representatives with 100 members. Montana is represented in the U.S. Congress by one representative and two senators, and the state has three electoral votes in presidential elections. Republican Marc Racicot, narrowly elected governor in 1992, was reelected in 1996. Judy Martz, a Republican and lieutenant governor under Racicot, was elected to succeed him in 2000, becoming the first woman to be elected to the post. In 2004, Democrat Brian Schweitzer won the governorship.
The Univ. of Montana, at Missoula, and Montana State Univ., at Bozeman, are the state's major institutions of higher learning. Both these systems also have other campuses.
History
Early Inhabitants, Fur Trading, and Gold
Native Americans known to have inhabited Montana at the time Europeans first explored it included the Blackfoot, the Sioux, the Shoshone, the Arapaho, the Kootenai, the Cheyenne, the Salish, and others. Exploration of the region began in earnest after most of Montana had passed to the United States under the Louisiana Purchase (1803). The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled westward across Montana in 1805, and François Antoine Laroque, along with his North West Company of Canada, explored the Yellowstone River after 1805.
The area's rivers were important avenues of travel for the native inhabitants as well as the early explorers of the country; the first trading post in Montana was established at the mouth of the Bighorn in 1807 by a trading expedition that Manuel Lisa led up the Missouri from St. Louis. For some years thereafter both Canadian and American fur traders continued to open up the territory. David Thompson of the North West Company built several trading posts in NW Montana between 1807 and 1812, and beaver in the mountain streams and lakes attracted adventurous trappers, the so-called mountain men. The American Fur Company, with its posts on the Missouri and the Yellowstone, dominated the later years of the region's fur trade, which diminished in the 1840s.
The U.S. claim to NW Montana, the area between the Rockies and the N Idaho border, was validated in the Oregon Treaty of 1846 with the British. Montana was then still a wilderness of forest and grass, with a few trading posts and some missions. Montana's first period of growth was the rapid, boisterous, and unstable expansion brought on by a gold rush. The discovery of gold, made initially in 1852, brought many people to mushrooming mining camps such as those at Bannack (1862) and Virginia City (1864). Crude shantytowns were built, complete with saloons and dance halls—ephemeral settlements as colorful as the earlier gold-rush camps in California and perhaps even more lawless.
Territorial Status, Sioux Resistance, and Statehood
Previously part of, successively, the territories of Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Dakota, and Idaho, Montana itself became a territory in 1864. It was still a rough frontier, however, and the first governor, Sidney Edgerton, was driven out of the region; later Thomas Francis Meagher, appointed temporary governor, died mysteriously. After the Civil War the grasslands attracted ranchers, and in 1866 the first cattle were brought in from Texas over the Bozeman Trail, to the area east of the Bighorn Mts.
Yet it was not until after wars with the Sioux that ranching was safe. The Sioux did not tamely submit to having their lands taken from them; in 1876 at the battle of the Little Bighorn, they defeated Col. George A. Custer and his force in one of the greatest of Native American victories. The Sioux were eventually subdued, and the gallant attempt of Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé to lead his people into Canada to escape pursuing U.S. troops had its pitiful end in Montana.
Great ranches spread out across the plains, and cow towns that were to grow into cities such as Billings and Missoula sprang up as the railroads were built in the West (c.1880–c.1910). Statehood was achieved in 1889, and the building of the railroads put an end to the era of the open range.
The Importance of Mining
Mining continued to dominate Montana's economy into the 20th cent. The discovery of silver at Butte (1875) was followed (c.1880) by discovery of copper at that same “richest hill on earth.” The Amalgamated Copper Company (later renamed Anaconda Copper Mining Company) came to play a major role in Montana life. The titans of the mines, Marcus Daly and William A. Clark, contended bitterly for ownership of the mineral deposits and for political control, and their rivalry was fought out physically by the miners. F. Augustus Heinze also entered the scramble for copper riches, challenging the claims of Amalgamated Copper. Amalgamated prevailed and exercised enormous control over state affairs.
Struggles between the company and the workers led to strikes, disorder, and bloodshed, but also to the enactment of some early measures for social security, important because over the years the livelihood of mining town residents has depended on the fluctuating market price of copper. By the 1990s, however, mining was producing less than 10% of Montana's revenues, and such centers as Butte and Anaconda, where operations had shut down, had become shells of their former selves.
The Expansion of Agriculture
After the coming of the railroads, farmers arrived by the trainload to develop the lands of E Montana. They planted their fields in the second decade of the 20th cent. The initial bounteous wheat yield did not last long; the calamitous drought of 1919 and the consequent dust storms seared the fields, and in the 1920s the farms began to disappear as rapidly as they had been established.
When the Great Depression began in 1929, Montana was already accustomed to depression. In subsequent years vigorous measures were taken to aid agriculture in the state, and by the late 1940s federal dam and irrigation projects—on the Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Marias, the Sun, and elsewhere—opened many acres to cultivation. Some of the vast grazing lands were brought under planned use, and the development of hydroelectric power continued. Major multipurpose dams in Montana producing power include Fort Peck, Hungry Horse, and Canyon Ferry.
Economic Diversification
The demand for copper in World War II and the E Montana oil boom of the early 1950s stimulated the economy, but the state still faces high transportation costs, a worker shortage, and slowness in regulating resources. A gradual trend toward a more diversified economy has seen manufacturing grow in importance; tourism is also on the rise. Coal exploitation increased dramatically in the 1970s, somewhat offsetting the decline of metals mining. In 1997 legislation was passed that aimed to attract foreign money by making the state an offshore banking haven.
Bibliography
See M. P. Malone, The Montana Past (1969); K. R. Toole, Twentieth-Century Montana (1972); M. P. Malone and R. B. Roeder, Montana, a History of Two Centuries (1976); C. C. Spence, Montana: A History (1978); W. L. Lang and R. C. Myers, Montana, Our Land and People (1979); J. A. Alwin, Eastern Montana (1982).
State in the northwestern United States, lying partly in the Rocky Mountains, bordered by British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, Canada, to the north; North Dakota and South Dakota to the east; Wyoming to the south; and Idaho to the west. Its capital is Helena, and its largest city is Billings.
Local Time: May 16, 1:15 PM
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| State of Montana | |||||||||||
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| Official language(s) | English | ||||||||||
| Capital | Helena | ||||||||||
| Largest city | Billings | ||||||||||
| Area | Ranked 4th | ||||||||||
| - Total | 147,165 sq mi (381,156 km²) |
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| - Width | 255 miles (410 km) | ||||||||||
| - Length | 630 miles (1,015 km) | ||||||||||
| - % water | 1 | ||||||||||
| - Latitude | 44° 21′ N to 49° N | ||||||||||
| - Longitude | 104° 2′ W to 116° 3′ W | ||||||||||
| Population | Ranked 44th | ||||||||||
| - Total (2000) | {{{2000Pop}}} | ||||||||||
| - Density | 6.19/sq mi 2.39/km² (48th) |
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| Elevation | |||||||||||
| - Highest point | Granite Peak[1] 12,799 ft (3,901 m) |
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| - Mean | 3,396 ft (1,035 m) | ||||||||||
| - Lowest point | Kootenai River[1] 1,800 ft (549 m) |
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| Admission to Union | November 8, 1889 (41st) | ||||||||||
| Governor | Brian Schweitzer (D) | ||||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Max Baucus (D) Jon Tester (D) |
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| Congressional Delegation | List | ||||||||||
| Time zone | Mountain: UTC-7/DST-6 | ||||||||||
| Abbreviations | MT US-MT | ||||||||||
| Web site | www.mt.gov | ||||||||||
Montana (IPA: /mɒnˈtænə/) is a
state in the Pacific Northwest and
Great Plains regions of the
With a land area of 145,552 mi² (376,978 km²) the state of Montana is the fourth largest in the United States (after Alaska, Texas, and California). To the north, Montana and Canada share a 545 mile (877 km) border. The state borders the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, more provinces than any other state. To the east, the state borders North Dakota and South Dakota. To the south is Wyoming and to the west and southwest is Idaho.
The topography of the state is diverse, but roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which runs on an approximate diagonal through the state from northwest to south-central, splitting it into two distinct eastern and western regions. Montana is well known for its mountainous western region, part of the northern Rocky Mountains. However, about 60% of the state is actually prairie, part of the northern Great Plains. Nonetheless, even east of the Continental Divide and the Rocky Mountain Front, there are a number of isolated "Island Ranges" that dot the prairie landscape.
The Bitterroot Mountains divide the state from Idaho to the west with the southern third of the range blending into the Continental Divide. Mountain ranges between the Bitterroots and the top of the Continental Divide include the Cabinet Mountains, the Missions, the Garnet, Sapphire, Flint Creek, and Pintlar ranges.
The northern section of the Divide, where the mountains give way rapidly to prairie, is known collectively as the Rocky Mountain Front and is most pronounced in the Lewis Range located primarily in Glacier National Park. Due to the configuration of mountain ranges in Glacier National Park, the Northern Divide (which begins in Alaska's Seward Peninsula) crosses this region and turns east in Montana at Triple Divide Peak. Thus, the Waterton, Belly, and Saint Mary rivers flow north into Alberta, Canada, joining the Saskatchewan River and ultimately emptying into Hudson Bay.
East of the Divide, several parallel ranges march across the southern half of the state, including the Gravelly Range, the Tobacco Roots, the Madison Range, Gallatin Range, Big Belt Mountains, Bridger Mountains, Absaroka Mountains, and the Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Plateau is the largest continuous land mass over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the lower 48 states and contains the highest point in the state, Granite Peak, 12,799 feet (3,901 m) high.
Between the mountain ranges are many scenic valleys, rich in agricultural resources and rivers, and possessing multiple opportunities for tourism and recreation. Among the best-known areas are the Flathead Valley, Bitterroot Valley, Big Hole Valley, and Gallatin Valley.
East and north of this transition zone are expansive sparsely populated Northern Plains, with rolling tableland prairies, "island" mountain ranges, and scenic badlands extending into the Dakotas, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Wyoming. The isolated island ranges east of the Divide include the Castle Mountains, Crazy Mountains, Little Belt Mountains, Snowy Mountains, Sweet Grass Hills, Bull Mountains. The Pryor Mountains South of Billings and, in the southeastern corner of the state near Ekalaka, the Long Pines and Short Pines.
The area east of the divide in the north-central portion of the state is known for the dramatic Missouri Breaks and other significant rock formations. Three stately buttes south of Great Falls are familiar landmarks. These buttes, Square Butte, Shaw Butte, and Crown Butte, are made of igneous rock, which is dense and has withstood weathering for many years. The underlying surface consists of shale. Many areas around these buttes are covered with clay surface soils. These soils have been derived from the weathering of the Colorado Formation. Farther east, areas such as Makoshika State Park near Glendive, and Medicine Rocks State Park near Ekalaka also highlight some of the most scenic badlands regions in the state.
Montana also contains a number of rivers, many of which are known for "blue-ribbon" trout fishing, but which also provide most of the water needed by residents of the state, as well as being a source of hydropower. Montana is the only state in the union whose rivers form parts of three major North American watersheds: The Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay which are divided atop Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park.
West of the divide, the Clark Fork of the Columbia (not to be confused with the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River) rises in the Rocky Mountains near Butte and flows northwest to Missoula. There it is joined by the Blackfoot River and Bitterroot River and further downstream by the Flathead River before entering Idaho near Lake Pend Oreille, becoming part of the Columbia River, which flows to the Pacific Ocean. The Clark Fork discharges the greatest volume of water of any river exiting the state. The Flathead River and Kootenai River also drain major portions of the western half of the state.
East of the divide, the Missouri River, formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, crosses the central part of the state, flows through the Missouri breaks and enters North Dakota. The Yellowstone River rises in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, flows north to Livingston, Montana, where it then turns east and flows across the state until it joins the Missouri River a few miles east of the North Dakota boundary. The Yellowstone River is the longest undammed, free-flowing river in North America. Other major Montana tributaries of the Missouri include the Milk, Marias, Tongue, and Musselshell Rivers. Montana also claims the disputed title of possessing the "world's shortest river," the Roe River, just outside Great Falls, Montana. These rivers ultimately join the Mississippi River and flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
Water is of critical importance to the state for both agriculture and hydropower. In addition to its rivers, the state is home to Flathead Lake, the largest natural fresh-water lake in the United States west of the Great Lakes. Man-made reservoirs dot Montana's rivers, the largest of which is Fort Peck Reservoir, on the Missouri river, contained by the largest earth-filled dam in the world.
Vegetation of the state includes ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, larch, fir, spruce, aspen, birch, red cedar, ash, alder, rocky mountain maple and cottonwood trees. Forests cover approximately 25% of the state. Flowers native to Montana include asters, bitterroots, daisies, lupins, poppies, primroses, columbine, lilies, orchids and dryads. Several species of sagebrush and cactus and many species of grasses are common. Many species of mushrooms and lichens are also found in the state.
Montana contains Glacier National Park and portions of Yellowstone National Park, including three of the Park's five entrances. Other federally recognized sites include the Little Bighorn National Monument, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Big Hole National Battlefield, Lewis and Clark Caverns, and the National Bison Range. Montana has eight National Forests and over 20 National Wildlife Refuges. The Federal government administers 36,000,000 acres (146,000 km²). 275,000 acres (1,100 km²) are administered as state parks and forests.
Areas managed by the National Park Service include:
Several Indian reservations are located in Montana: Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Crow Indian Reservation, Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and the Flathead Indian Reservation.
See also: List of Montana counties, List of Montana rivers
Native Americans were the first of many inhabitants of the state of Montana. Groups included the Crow in the south-central area, the Cheyenne in the southeast, the Blackfeet, Assiniboine and Gros Ventres
