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Mon·tan·a |
(Abbr. MT or Mont.)
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Montana |
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.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Montana |
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. Helena is the capital, Billings and Great Falls the largest cities; other important cities include Missoula and Butte.
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 and 2008, 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).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography:
Montana |
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.
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Montana |
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Montana |
| State of Montana | |||||
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| Nickname(s): Big Sky Country, The Treasure State | |||||
| Motto(s): Oro y Plata (Spanish: Gold and Silver) |
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| Official language(s) | English | ||||
| Demonym | Montanan | ||||
| Capital | Helena | ||||
| Largest city | Billings | ||||
| Largest metro area | Billings Metropolitan Area | ||||
| Area | Ranked 4th in the U.S. | ||||
| - Total | 147,042 sq mi (381,154 km2) |
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| - Width | 630 miles (1,015 km) | ||||
| - Length | 255 miles (410 km) | ||||
| - % water | 1 | ||||
| - Latitude | 44° 21′ N to 49° N | ||||
| - Longitude | 104° 2′ W to 116° 3′ W | ||||
| Population | Ranked 44th in the U.S. | ||||
| - Total | 998,199 | ||||
| - Density | 6.86/sq mi (2.65/km2) Ranked 48th in the U.S. |
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| Elevation | |||||
| - Highest point | Granite Peak[1][2][3] 12,807 ft (3903.5 m) |
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| - Mean | 3,400 ft (1040 m) | ||||
| - Lowest point | Kootenai River at Idaho border[2][3] 1,804 ft (550 m) |
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| Before statehood | Montana Territory | ||||
| Admission to Union | November 8, 1889 (41st) | ||||
| Governor | Brian Schweitzer (D) | ||||
| Lieutenant Governor | John Bohlinger (R) | ||||
| Legislature | Montana Legislature | ||||
| - Upper house | Senate | ||||
| - Lower house | House of Representatives | ||||
| U.S. Senators | Max Baucus (D) Jon Tester (D) |
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| U.S. House delegation | Denny Rehberg (R) (list) | ||||
| Time zone | Mountain: UTC -7/DST-6 | ||||
| Abbreviations | MT Mont. US-MT | ||||
| Website | www.mt.gov | ||||
Montana (
i/mɒnˈtænə/) is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña (mountain). Montana has several nicknames, none official,[4] including: "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently, "The Last Best Place".[5][6] Montana is the 4th most extensive, but the 7th least populous and the 3rd least densely populated of the 50 United States. The economy is primarily based on services, with ranching, wheat farming, oil and coal mining in the east, and lumber, tourism, and hard rock mining in the west.[7] Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.[8]
The name Montana comes from the Spanish word Montaña meaning "mountain" or more broadly, "mountainous country". Montaña del Norte was the name given by early Spanish explorers to describe the entire mountainous region of the west.[citation needed][who?] Historians believe General and former Kansas Territory Governor James W. Denver was aware of this when asked by Senate chairman of the Committee on Territories Stephen A. Douglas for a name of one of the several territories he was planning on proposing. Though Douglas never did introduce a bill with the name Montana, he is credited with at least introducing the name. {[cn}} The name was eventually added to a bill by the United States House Committee on Territories, which was chaired at the time by Rep. James Ashley of Ohio, for the territory that would become Idaho Territory. The name was successfully changed by Representatives Henry Wilson (Massachusetts) and Benjamin F. Harding (Oregon) both complained that Montana had "no meaning".{[cn}} When Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in 1864, for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Montana Territory. {[cn}} This time Rep. Samuel Cox, also of Ohio, objected to the name. He complained that the name was a misnomer given that most of the territory was not at all mountainous and that an Indian name would be more appropriate than a Spanish one.{[cn}} To this Rep. Elihu Washburne of Illinois jokingly suggested Abyssinia. Cox suggested Shoshone, but its translated meaning of "snake" elicited laughter and a remark that the bill had progressed too far to have the territory's name changed without unanimous consent. Cox then suggested that the new territory be called 'Jefferson', to which Ashley responded, "Oh, well, we are opposed to that."[citation needed] This astounded Cox, "Opposed to Jefferson! I propose that we name the new territory, by unanimous consent, 'Douglas Territory.' I think the gentleman opposite will agree to that," to which Ashley replied, "Oh, no, we cannot do that."{[cn}} Rep. John Pruyn then commented that the Governor Lyon of Idaho Territory said he thought the names for the two territories should be reversed given Idaho was more mountainous than Montana. Finally, Rep. Edwin Webster of Maryland stepped in and suggested that every father has the right to name his own child, and since the bill was the progeny of the Committee on Territories, the committee could name it whatever they wanted. After more laughter the name was settled.[9][10]
With a land area of 147,046 square miles (380,850 km2), Montana is slightly larger than Japan and slightly smaller than Paraguay. It is the fourth largest state in the United States (after Alaska, Texas, and California), the largest landlocked U.S. state, and the 56th largest national state/province subdivision in the world. To the north, Montana shares a 545-mile (877 km) border with three Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. To the east, the state borders North Dakota and South Dakota. To the south lies Wyoming and to the west and southwest is Idaho.
The topography of the state is diverse and roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which runs on an approximate diagonal line 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, most of which is geologically and geographically part of the Northern Rocky Mountains. The Absaroka and Beartooth ranges in the south are technically part of the Central Rocky Mountains. About 60% of the state is 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. This island range region covers most of the central third of the state.
The Bitterroot Mountains—one of the longest continuous ranges in the entire Rocky Mountain chain from Alaska to Mexico—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 Anaconda Range (informally called the "Pintlars"), the Missions, the Garnet Range, Sapphire Mountains, and Flint Creek Range.
The northern section of the Divide, where the mountains give way rapidly to prairie, is known collectively as the Rocky Mountain Front. The front 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. It causes the Waterton River, Belly, and Saint Mary rivers to flow north into Alberta, Canada. There they join the Saskatchewan River, which ultimately empties 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) high in the continental United States. It 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 Big Hole Valley, Bitterroot Valley, Gallatin Valley, Flathead Valley, and Paradise 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 and Wyoming, as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The isolated island ranges east of the Divide include the Bear Paw Mountains, Castle Mountains, Crazy Mountains, Highwood Mountains, Judith Mountains, Little Belt Mountains, Little Rocky 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.
The area east of the divide in the north-central portion of the state is known for the Missouri Breaks and other significant rock formations. Three stately buttes south of Great Falls are familiar landmarks. The three: Square, Shaw, and Crown buttes, 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, which 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.
The Hell Creek Formation is a major source of dinosaur fossils. Paleontologist Jack Horner, of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, brought this formation to the world's attention with several major finds.
Montana also contains numerous rivers, many of which are known for "blue-ribbon" trout fishing, while also providing most of the water needed by residents of the state, and hydropower. Montana is one of few geographic areas in the world whose rivers form parts of three major watersheds (i.e. where two continental divides intersect). Its rivers feed the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay, and the watershed areas 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, where it is joined by the Blackfoot River and Bitterroot River, and further downstream by the Flathead River, before entering Idaho near Lake Pend Oreille. There it meets 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 and Kootenai rivers 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 through Billings, continuing 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 the contiguous United States. Other major Montana tributaries of the Missouri include the Milk, Marias, Tongue, and Musselshell rivers. Montana claims the disputed title of possessing the "world's shortest river," the Roe River, just outside Great Falls, Montana. Through the Missouri, these rivers ultimately join the Mississippi River and flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Northern Divide turns east in Montana at Triple Divide Peak. It causes the Waterton River, Belly, and Saint Mary rivers to flow north into Alberta, Canada. There they join the Saskatchewan River, which ultimately empties into Hudson Bay.
In addition to its rivers, the state is home to Flathead Lake, the largest natural fresh-water lake in the western United States. Man-made reservoirs dot Montana's rivers, the largest of which is Fort Peck Reservoir, on the Missouri river, contained by the largest earthen dam in the world.
Vegetation of the state includes lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine; douglas fir, larch, spruce; aspen, birch, red cedar, hemlock, ash, alder; rocky mountain maple and cottonwood trees. Forests cover approximately 25 percent 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 is home to a diverse array of fauna that includes 15 amphibian, 85 fish, 110 mammal, 17 reptile and 420 bird species.[11] Additionally, there are over 10,000 invertebrate species, including 180 mollusks and 30 crustaceans. Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.[citation needed]
Montana contains Glacier National Park, "The Crown of the Continent"; 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 ten National Forests and more than 20 National Wildlife Refuges. The Federal government administers 36,000,000 acres (150,000 km2). 275,000 acres (1,110 km2) are administered as state parks and forests.
Areas managed by the National Park Service include:[12]
In March 2011, Montana ranked as a bottom-ten "Worst" state (tied with North Dakota and Texas) in the American State Litter Scorecard. Montana suffers from poor effectiveness and quality of its statewide public space cleanliness, due to overall state and related eradication standards and performance indicators.[13]
Montana is a large state with considerable variation in geography, and the climate is, therefore, equally varied. The state spans from 'below' the 45th parallel (the halfway line between the equator and the north pole) to the 49th parallel, and elevations range from under 2,000 feet (610 m) to nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 m) above sea level. The western half is mountainous, interrupted by numerous large valleys. Eastern Montana comprises plains and badlands, broken by hills and isolated mountain ranges, and has a semi-arid, continental climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The Continental Divide runs north-south through the western mountainous half, and has a great effect on the climate. It restricts the flow of warmer air from the Pacific from moving east, and cooler, drier continental moving west. West of the divide, the climate is described as modified northern Pacific coast climate, with milder winters, cooler summers, less wind, and a longer growing season.[14] In the winter, valley fog and low clouds often form in the valleys west of the divide, but this is rarely seen in the east.[15]
Average daytime temperatures vary from 28 °F (−2 °C) in January to 84.5 °F (29.2 °C) in July.[16] The variation in geography leads to great variation in temperature. Hot weather occurs in the eastern plains on occasion, the highest observed being 117 °F (47 °C) at Glendive on July 20, 1893, and Medicine Lake on July 5, 1937. Throughout the state, summer nights are generally cool and pleasant. Temperatures decrease as altitude increases, and hot weather is unknown above 4,000 ft (1,200 m). Snowfall is not unknown in any month of the year in the central part of Montana, but is rare in July and August.[14]
The coldest temperature on record for Montana is also the coldest temperature for the entire contiguous U.S. On January 20, 1954, −70 °F (−57 °C) was recorded at a gold mining camp near Rogers Pass. Temperatures vary greatly on such cold nights, and Helena, 40 miles (64 km) to the southeast had a low of only −36 °F (−38 °C).[14] Winter cold spells last a week or so, and are usually the result of cold continental air coming south from Canada. The front is often well defined, causing a large temperature drop in a 24-hour period. Conversely, air flow from the southwest results in "Chinooks". These steady 25–50 mph (or more) winds can suddenly warm parts of Montana, especially areas just to the east of the mountains, where temperatures sometimes rise up to 50 °F (10 °C) – 60 °F (15 °C).[14]
Loma, Montana is the location of the most extreme recorded temperature change in a 24-hour period in the United States. On January 15, 1972, the temperature rose from −54 °F (−48 °C) to 49 °F (9 °C).[17]
Average annual precipitation is 15 inches (380 mm), but great variations are seen. The mountain ranges block the moist Pacific air, holding moisture in the western valleys, and creating rain shadows to the east. Heron, in the west, receives the most precipitation, 34.70 inches (881 mm). On the eastern (leeward) side of a mountain range, the valleys are much drier; Lonepine averages 11.45 inches (291 mm), and Deer Lodge 11.00 inches (279 mm) of precipitation. The mountains themselves can receive over 100 inches (2,500 mm), for example the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park gets 105 inches (2,700 mm).[15] Perhaps the driest is an area southwest of Belfry that averaged only 6.59 inches (167 mm) over a sixteen-year period. Most of the larger cities get 30 to 50 inches (760 to 1,300 mm) of snow each year. Mountain ranges themselves can accumulate 300 inches (7,600 mm) of snow during a winter. Heavy snowstorms may occur as early as September or as late as May, though most snow falls from November to March.[14]
The climate has become warmer in Montana and continues to do so.[18] The glaciers in Glacier National Park have receded and are predicted to melt away completely in a few decades.[19] Many Montana cities set heat records during July 2007, the hottest month ever recorded in Montana.[18][20] Winters are warmer, too, and have fewer cold spells. Previously these cold spells had killed off bark beetles which are now attacking the forests of western Montana.[21][22] The combination of warmer weather, attack by beetles, and mismanagement during past years has led to a substantial increase in the severity of forest fires in Montana.[18][22] According to a study done for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, portions of Montana will experience a 200% increase in area burned by wildland fires, and an 80% increase in air pollution from those fires.[23][24]
Various indigenous peoples lived in the territory of the present-day state of Montana for thousands of years. Historic tribes encountered by Europeans and settlers from the United States included the Crow in the south-central area; the Cheyenne in the southeast; the Blackfeet, Assiniboine and Gros Ventres in the central and north-central area; and the Kootenai and Salish in the west. The smaller Pend d'Oreille and Kalispel tribes lived near Flathead Lake and the western mountains, respectively.
The land in Montana east of the continental divide was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Subsequent to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and after the finding of gold and copper (see the Copper Kings) in the area in the late 1850s, Montana became a United States territory (Montana Territory) on May 26, 1864. Prior to the creation of Montana Territory (1864–1889), various parts of what is now Montana were parts of Oregon Territory (1848–1859), Washington Territory (1853–1863), Idaho Territory (1863–1864), and Dakota Territory (1861–1864).
The Army established a series of posts in the late 1860s, including Fort Shaw, Camp Cooke on the Judith River and Fort C.F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail.
Montana was the scene of warfare as the Native Americans struggled to maintain control of their land. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought near the present-day town of Hardin. Montana was also the location of the final battles of the Nez Perce Wars.
A series of major mining discoveries in the western third of the state starting in 1862 found gold, silver, copper lead, coal (and later oil) that attracted tens of thousands of miners to the area. The richest of all gold placer diggings was discovered at Alder Gulch, where the town of Virginia City was established. Other rich placer deposits were found at Last Chance Gulch, where the city of Helena now stands, Confederate Gulch, Silver Bow, Emigrant Gulch, and Cooke City. Gold output from 1862 through 1876 reached $144 million; silver then became even more important. The largest mining operations were in the city of Butte, which had important silver deposits and gigantic copper deposits.
Cattle ranching has been central to Montana's history and economy since the late-19th century. The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge Valley is maintained as a link to the ranching style of the late 19th century. Operated by the National Park Service, it is a 1,900 acres (7.7 km2) working ranch.
The railroads arrived in the 1880s, including the Great Northern Railroad (1889) and its rival, the Northern Pacific Railroad (1883) from Minneapolis, and the Union Pacific Railroad (1881) from Denver. Montana railroading, with two transcontinentals to the Pacific coast and extensive operations to the mines, became a major industry, with centers in Billings and Havre. Montana became a state in 1889 in an omnibus package together with North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington. In 1888, Helena (the current state capital) had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.[citation needed]
The revised Homestead Act of 1909 greatly affected the settlement of Montana. This act expanded the amount of free land from 160 acres (0.6 km2) to 320 acres (1.3 km2) per family. Tens of thousands of inexperienced homesteaders arrived, lured by free land and high wheat prices, but they were unprepared for the climate, which usually had little rainfall and required special dry farming techniques. The droughts of 1917–1919 proved devastating, as many left, and half the banks in the state went bankrupt after providing mortgages that could not be repaid. The Great Depression caused further hardship for farmers and ranchers and miners, but the economy bounced back in the 1940s. The wheat farms in eastern Montana make the state a major producer; the wheat has a relatively high protein content and thus commands premium prices. After 1940 tourism became the state's third largest industry with Yellowstone and Glacier national parks as the largest tourist attractions.
The planned battleship USS Montana was named in honor of the state. However, the battleship was never completed, making Montana the only one of the 48 states during World War II not to have a battleship named after it. Additionally, Alaska and Hawaii have both had nuclear submarines named after them. As such Montana is the only state in the union without a modern naval ship named in its honor. However, in August 2007 Senator Jon Tester made a request to the Navy that a submarine be christened USS Montana.[25]
Politics in the state has been competitive, with the Democrats usually holding an edge, thanks to the support among unionized miners and railroad workers. Large scale battles revolved around the giant Anaconda Copper company, based in Butte and controlled by Rockefeller interests, until it closed in the 1970s. Until 1959, the company owned five of the state's six largest newspapers.
Seven American 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.
Montana has 56 counties with the United States Census Bureau stating Montana's contains 364 "places", broken down into 129 incorporated places and 235 census-designated places. Incorporated places consist of 52 cities, 75 towns, and two consolidated city-counties.[26] Montana has one city, Billings, with a population over 100,000; and two cities with populations over 50,000, Missoula and Great Falls. These three communities are considered the centers of Montana's three Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The state also has five Micropolitan Statistical Areas centered on Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Kalispell and Havre*.[27] These communities, excluding Havre, are colloquially known as the "big 7" Montana cities, as they are consistently the seven largest communities in Montana, with a significant population difference when these communities are compared to those that are 8th and lower on the list,[28] and the only communities to host major airports.[29] Based on 2000 census numbers, they collectively contain 34 percent of Montana's population.[30] and the counties containing these communities hold more than 60 percent of the state's population.[31]
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1870 | 20,595 |
|
|
| 1880 | 39,159 | 90.1% | |
| 1890 | 142,924 | 265.0% | |
| 1900 | 243,329 | 70.3% | |
| 1910 | 376,053 | 54.5% | |
| 1920 | 548,889 | 46.0% | |
| 1930 | 537,606 | −2.1% | |
| 1940 | 559,456 | 4.1% | |
| 1950 | 591,024 | 5.6% | |
| 1960 | 674,767 | 14.2% | |
| 1970 | 694,409 | 2.9% | |
| 1980 | 786,690 | 13.3% | |
| 1990 | 799,065 | 1.6% | |
| 2000 | 902,195 | 12.9% | |
| 2010 | 989,415 | 9.7% | |
| Source: 1910–2010[32] | |||
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Montana was 998,199 on July 1, 2011, a 0.89% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[33]
The 2010 census put Montana's population at 989,415 which is an increase of 87,220 people, or 9.7 percent, since the year 2000. Growth is mainly concentrated in Montana's seven largest counties, with the heaviest percentile growth in Gallatin County, which saw a 32%[34] increase in its population since 2000. The city seeing the largest percentile growth was Kalispell with 40.1%.[35] The city with the largest actual growth was Billings with an increase in population of 14,323 since 2000.[35]
According to the 2010 Census, 89.4% of the population was White (87.8% Non-Hispanic White Alone), 0.4% Black or African American, 6.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 0.6% from Some Other Race, and 2.5% from Two or More Races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 2.9% of the population.[36]
The largest European ancestry groups in Montana are: German (29.3%), Irish (16.4%), English (13.1%), and Norwegian (10%). In addition, 5.9% of the people identified their ancestry as "American".[37]
According to 2010 U.S. Census the population of Montana's seven most populous areas are Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Kalispell.[35][27]
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 94.8 percent of the population aged 5 and older speak English at home.[38]
The center of population of Montana is located in Meagher County, in the city of White Sulphur Springs.[39]
Apart from the sizable American Indian population, nearly 90% of its residents are of European descent, with a large numbers of German, Irish, British, Slavic, Italian, and Scandinavian immigrants arriving 1890–1910. About 2000–3000 Chinese miners were in Montana by 1870, and 2500 in 1890. They were strongly opposed by labor unions, and public opinion grew increasingly negative in the 1890s and nearly half left the state by 1900.[40]
While German ancestry is the largest reported European-American ancestry in Montana as a whole, residents of Scandinavian ancestry are prevalent in some of the farming-dominated northern and eastern prairie regions, parallel to nearby regions of North Dakota and Minnesota. Irish and English are the second and third largest European ancestral groups in the state. There are also several predominantly Native American counties, mainly around each of the seven Indian reservations. The state has a larger Native American population (and percentage) than most US states. The seven reservations are actually made of more than twelve distinct Native American ethnolinguistic groups. The historically mining-oriented communities of western Montana such as Butte have a wider range of ethnic groups, and are particularly rich in European-American ethnicity; Finns, Eastern Europeans and especially Irish settlers left an indelible mark on the city, as well as people originally from British mining regions such as Cornwall, Devon, and Wales. The nearby city of Helena, also founded as a mining camp, had a similar mix in addition to a small Chinatown, and the Chinese in Montana, while a low percentage today, have historically been an important presence. Montanans who claim Filipino ancestry amount to almost 3,000, making them the largest Asian American group in the state.[41] Throughout the nineteenth century, many farmers of German, Scandinavian, Irish, Scots, and English roots settled in Montana. In addition, the Hutterites, originally from Central Europe, settled here, and today Montana is second only to South Dakota in U.S. Hutterite population with several colonies spread across the state. Many of Montana's historic logging communities originally attracted people of Scottish, Scandinavian, Slavic, English and Scots-Irish descent. Montana's Hispanic population is concentrated around the Billings area in south-central Montana, where many of Montana's Mexican-Americans have been in the state for generations. The highest density of African-Americans is located in Great Falls.
| By race | White | Black | AIAN* | Asian | NHPI* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 (total population) | 92.79% | 0.50% | 7.36% | 0.79% | 0.12% |
| 2000 (Hispanic only) | 1.74% | 0.05% | 0.28% | 0.04% | 0.01% |
| 2005 (total population) | 92.52% | 0.62% | 7.47% | 0.82% | 0.11% |
| 2005 (Hispanic only) | 2.22% | 0.07% | 0.23% | 0.03% | 0.01% |
| Growth 2000–05 (total population) | 3.42% | 28.09% | 5.19% | 7.11% | -4.46% |
| Growth 2000–05 (non-Hispanic only) | 2.87% | 25.58% | 5.91% | 8.07% | -0.82% |
| Growth 2000–05 (Hispanic only) | 31.85% | 52.36% | -13.46% | -13.52% | -39.22% |
| * AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | |||||
The religious affiliations of the people of Montana
As of the year 2000, the RCMS[42] reported that the three largest denominational groups in Montana are Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Mainline Protestant.
The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2000 were the Roman Catholic Church with 169,250; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 50,287;[42] and as of Dec. 31, 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 45,517.[43]
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The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Montana's total state product in 2003 was $26 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $25,406, 47th in the nation. However, this number is rapidly increasing.
Montana is a relative hub of beer microbrewing, ranking third in the nation in number of craft breweries per capita.[44] There are significant industries for lumber and mineral extraction; the state's resources include gold, coal, silver, talc, and vermiculite. Ecotaxes on resource extraction are numerous. A 1974 state severance tax on coal (which varied from 20 to 30 percent) was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana, 453 U.S. 609 (1981).
Tourism is also important to the economy with millions of visitors a year to Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake, the Missouri River headwaters, the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.
Montana's personal income tax contains 7 brackets, with rates ranging from 1% to 6.9%. Montana has no sales tax. In Montana, household goods are exempt from property taxes. However, property taxes are assessed on livestock, farm machinery, heavy equipment, automobiles, trucks, and business equipment. The amount of property tax owed is not determined solely by the property's value. The property's value is multiplied by a tax rate, set by the Montana Legislature, to determine its taxable value. The taxable value is then multiplied by the mill levy established by various taxing jurisdictions—city and county government, school districts and others.
As of January 2010, the state's unemployment rate is 6.8%.[45]
Montana has variety of arts and culture as well as festivals and events.
There are no major league sports franchises in Montana due to the state's relatively small and dispersed population, but a number of minor league teams play in the state. Baseball is the minor-league sport with the longest heritage in the state, and Montana is currently home to four Minor League baseball teams, all members of the Pioneer Baseball League:
The Missoula Phoenix and the Great Falls Gladiators are semi-pro football teams in the Rocky Mountain Football League (RMFL).
All of Montana's four-year colleges and universities field a variety of intercollegiate sports teams. The two largest schools, the University of Montana and Montana State University, are members of the Big Sky Conference and have enjoyed a strong athletic rivalry since the early twentieth century. Most of the smaller four-year schools in the state belong to the Frontier Conference.
Football and basketball are the two most popular sports at the high school level. Montana is one of the few states where the smallest high schools participate in six-man football leagues.
Numerous other sports are played at the club and amateur level, including softball, rugby, and soccer. In 2011, Big Sky Little League won the Northwest Region, advancing to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, PA for the first time in state history.
From 1988–2010, the Montana High School All Class Wrestling Tournament was held in Billings at MetraPark. This event remains one of the most popular high school events each year in Montana. The 2011 event was relocated to three different cities due to a freak tornado that tore the roof of the MetraPark building on June 20, 2011.[46] The MetraPark has been repaired and expects to host the all class tournament again.
There are six junior hockey teams in Montana, all affiliated with the American West Hockey League:
In 1904 a group of young Native American women, after playing undefeated during their last season, went to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis and defeated all challenging teams and were declared to be world champions. For this they received a large silver trophy with the inscription "World's Fair – St. Louis, 1904 – Basket Ball – Won by Fort Shaw Team".[47]
Montana has several ski areas including:
The current Governor is Brian Schweitzer (Democrat) who was sworn in on January 3, 2005. Montana's two U.S. senators are Max Baucus (Democrat) and Jon Tester (Democrat). The state's congressional representative is Denny Rehberg (Republican).
Montana in 1916 became the first state to elect a woman to Congress (Jeannette Rankin) (Republican) and was one of the first states to give women voting rights (see suffrage).
Historically, Montana is a swing state of cross-ticket voters who tend to fill elected offices with individuals from both parties. Through the mid-20th century, the state had a tradition of "sending the liberals to Washington and the conservatives to Helena." However, beginning in the 1980s, the pattern flipped, with voters more likely to elect conservatives to federal offices. There have also been long-term shifts of party control. During the 1970s, the state was dominated by the Democratic Party, with Democratic governors for a 20-year period, and a Democratic majority of both the national congressional delegation and during many sessions of the state legislature. This pattern shifted, beginning with the 1988 election, when Montana elected a Republican governor and sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate for the first time since the 1940s. This shift continued with the reapportionment of the state's legislative districts that took effect in 1994, when the Republican Party took control of both chambers of the state legislature, consolidating a Republican party dominance that lasted until 2004.
In presidential elections, Montana was long classified as a swing state, though in recent years, Montana has been classified as a Republican-leaning state, as the state supported Republican presidential candidates in every election from 1996 to the present. The state last supported a Democrat for president in 1992, when Bill Clinton won a plurality victory. Overall, since 1889 the state has voted for Democratic governors 60 percent of the time and Democratic presidents 40 percent of the time, with these numbers being 40/60 for Republican candidates. In the 2008 presidential election, Montana was considered a swing state and was ultimately won by Republican John McCain, albeit by a narrow margin of two percent.[48]
However, at the state level, the pattern of split ticket voting and divided government holds. Democrats currently hold both U.S. Senate seats, as well as four of the five statewide offices (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State and State Auditor). The Legislative branch had split party control between the house and senate most years between 2004 and 2010, when the mid-term elections returned both branches to Republican control. The state Senate is, as of 2010, controlled by the Republicans 28 to 22, and the State House of Representatives at 68 to 32.
Montana is an Alcoholic beverage control state.
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The state-funded Montana University System consists of:
Major Tribal Colleges in Montana include:
There are three small private colleges based in Montana, in addition to branch campuses of out-of-state schools: |
Montana's largest circulating daily newspapers are the Billings Gazette, Great Falls Tribune, and Missoulian.[49]
Montana does not have a Trauma I hospital, but does have several Trauma II in Billings, Missoula, and Great Falls.[50]
Railroads have been an important method of transportation in Montana since the 1880s. Historically, the state was traversed by the main lines of three east-west transcontinental routes: the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern, and the Northern Pacific. Today, the BNSF Railway is the state's largest railroad, its main transcontinental route incorporating the former Great Northern main line across the state. Montana RailLink, a privately-held Class II railroad, operates former Northern Pacific trackage in western Montana.
In addition, Amtrak's Empire Builder train runs through the north of the state, stopping in the following towns: Libby, Whitefish, West Glacier, Essex, East Glacier Park, Browning, Cut Bank, Shelby, Havre, Malta, Glasgow, and Wolf Point.
Billings Logan International Airport is the largest and busiest airport within a four state region (Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota) both in passenger boardings and air cargo.[52] Montana's other major Airports include Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Missoula International Airport, Great Falls International Airport, Glacier Park International Airport, Helena Regional Airport, Bert Mooney Airport and Yellowstone Airport. Eight smaller communities have airports designated for commercial service under the Essential Air Service program.
Historically, the primary east-west highway route across Montana was U.S. Route 10, which connected the major cities in the southern half of the state. Still the state's most important east-west travel corridor, the route is today served by Interstate 90 and Interstate 94. U.S. Routes 2 and 12 and Montana Highway 200 also traverse the entire state from east to west.
Montana's only north-south Interstate Highway is Interstate 15. Other major north-south highways include U.S. Routes 87, 89, 93 and 191. Interstate 25 terminates into I-90 just south of the Montana border in Wyoming.
Montana and South Dakota are the only states to share a land border which is not traversed by a paved road.[53]
In March 2011, Montana ranked as a bottom-ten "Worst" state (tied with North Dakota and Texas) in the American State Litter Scorecard. Montana suffers from poor effectiveness and quality of its statewide public space cleanliness, due to overall state and related eradication standards and performance indicators.[54] Also that year, Montana ranked among the five deadliest states for debris/litter–caused vehicle accidents per total number of registered vehicles and population size. Figures derived from[55] NHTSA show at least nine persons in Montana were killed each year in motor vehicle collisions with non-fixed objects, including debris, dumped litter, animals and their carcasses.
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OpenStreetMap has geographic data related to Montana
Coordinates: 47°N 110°W / 47°N 110°W
| Preceded by South Dakota |
List of U.S. states by date of statehood Admitted on November 8, 1889 (41st) |
Succeeded by Washington |
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 British Columbia |
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 Saskatchewan |
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 North Dakota |
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Translations:
Montana |
Français (French)
n. - Montana
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Montana
Español (Spanish)
n. - Montana
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
蒙大拿州
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 蒙大拿州
한국어 (Korean)
몬태나 (미국 북서부의 주; 주도 Helena; (약) Mont.; 속칭 Tresaure State, Bonanza State)
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