Geography

Montana takes its name from the Spanish word for “mountain country,” but it is much more than a mountain state. Nearly two-thirds of Montana is on the western part of the Great Plains, and some parts of it are as flat as a table! These plains are one reason Montana is often called the Big Sky state, because on the Montana plains, the horizon is so low that most of what you see there is sky. Montana has mighty rivers running through it, such as the Missouri, the Milk, the Sun, and the Yellowstone (all of which actually drain into the Missouri).

However, Montana is “mountain country” for a reason. The Rocky Mountains run right through the western part of the state, and they include such famous ranges of mountains as the Cabinet Mountains and the rugged Bitterroot Range. The Continental Divide runs along the ridge of the Rockies, from northwestern Montana to the south central part of the state.

Montana is still mostly unpopulated. There are fewer than a million people in the state, which is not very many when you consider that Montana is the fourth largest state in America (only Alaska, Texas, and California are larger)! Montana's main industry these days is tourism, which has replaced mining and ranching.

There are so many places to see in Montana! There is Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Little Bighorn National Monument, which was the site of Custer's Last Stand. There are also plenty of places to hunt and fish, boat, hike, and camp, especially near Flathead Lake, a huge body of water just south of Glacier National Park.

Although not as essential as they once were, mining (especially gold, silver, zinc, platinum, and lead), cattle-and sheep-ranching, and agriculture are still very important to Montana's economy. Montana's farmers grow crops like wheat, barley, hay, and sugar beets.

WORDS TO KNOW

Continental Divide

In the Rocky Mountains, which are the tallest point on our continent, the Continental Divide is the exact center point on the crest of the Rockies where water on one side of the mountains runs downhill and eventually enters the Atlantic Ocean and water on the other side of the mountains runs downhill and flows into the Pacific Ocean.

History

Before Europeans first visited North America, Native Americans lived in Montana, on the edges of the plains, and would go onto the plains every once in a while to hunt buffalo. After Europeans brought the horse to America, many of these tribes moved out to live full-time on the plains as nomads, following the buffalo herds and hunting them year-round.

These nomadic peoples included the Cheyenne, the Gros Ventres (French for “Big Bellies”), the Arikara, the Crow, the Blackfoot, the Flatheads, and the Sioux (pronounced “soo”). Most of these tribes still live in Montana today. Their reservations dot the state, and Native American tribes are active participants in caring for the environment. These tribes all have their own governments, their own law codes, and their own police and fire departments!

Most of the state became the property of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. That treaty gave the United States a claim to all of Montana up to the continental divide, but the western part of the state was still mostly unexplored at that time.

The Lewis and Clark expedition changed all that. They visited Montana both on the way to the Pacific coast and when returning to the east. They explored much of the state, and followed the Missouri to its source in the Rocky Mountains.

During the fifty years between Lewis and Clark visiting the region and the discovery of gold in Montana in the 1850s, there was a brisk fur trade going on. Companies such as the North West Fur Company and the American Fur Company established trading posts in the area, looking especially for beaver hides, which could be made into tall top hats.

Although Native Americans did most of the fur-trapping during this period, there were independent trappers from the east who competed with them. Many of these men lived among the local tribes and adopted their ways, including marrying and starting families with Native American women.

When gold was discovered in 1852, there was a mad rush into the region by people looking to get rich. These prospectors caused trouble with tribes like the Sioux and Cheyenne, who went to war several times to stop gold-seekers from invading their lands. During one of these wars, the Sioux lured soldiers under the command of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer into an ambush in what is now eastern Montana, along the Little Bighorn River. Custer and all of his troopers (225 men) were killed within a thirty-minute period.

It was a huge victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne. However, within a year, the members of the tribes who had fought at Little Bighorn had almost all been captured and placed on a new reservation. By late 1877, even Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief and medicine man who had led the Sioux so skillfully, had fled north to Canada.