Page Toppers

• Beneath Montana Skies
• Land of Shining Mountains
• Montana Cafe
  (song by Hank Williams, Jr.)
• Montana Calls
• Montana Cowboy
  (song by Hot Rize)
• Montana's Golden Hills

Symbols

• Nicknames: The Treasure State; The Bonanza State; Land of Shining Mountains; The Stubtoe State; The Headwaters state
• Slogan: Big Sky Country
• Motto: Gold and Silver
• Song: Montana
• Ballad: Montana Melody
• Dance: Square Dance
• Animal: Grizzly Bear
• Bird: Western Meadowlark
• Fish: Blackspotted Cutthroat Trout
• Butterfly: Mourning Cloak
• Tree: Ponderosa Pine
• Flower: Bitterroot
• Grass: Bluebunch Wheatgrass
• Fossil: Duck-billed Dinosaur
• Gemstone: Sapphire and Montana Agate

Facts About Montana

• Capital: Helena
• Residents: Montanans
• State Name Origin: from a Latin word that means "mountainous" or the Spanish word for "mountains"
• Admitted to Statehood: 8 Nov 1889
• Order of Admission: 41st state
• Length: 630 miles
• Width: 280 miles
• Area: 147,042 square miles
• Size Rank: 4
• Number of Counties: 56
• Streams and Rivers: 176,750 miles
• Geographic Center: 11 miles W of Lewiston in Fergus Co.
• Mean Elevation: 3,400 feet
• Highest Point: Granite Peak, 12,799 feet
• Lowest Point: Kootenal River, 1,800 feet
• Agricultural Products: wheat, barley, rye, oats, flaxseed, sugar beets, potatoes, sheep, cattle
• Commercial Products: copper, gold, wood and paper products
• Average Annual Rainfall: varies by area
• Average Winter High Temperature: 20-35 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -70 degrees (20 Jan 1954 Rogers Pass)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 69 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 117 degrees (5 Jul 1936 Medicine Lake)
• Official Language: English (since 1995)
• More information about Montana

Quotes

• Cooke City has a winter population of a hundred self-selected souls - all of whom, it seems, are wedded to the proposition that the climate is ideal. (Mark Singer)
• In every true Montanan there is something that says, "I am a last holdout." (David Lamb)
• When rain falls in these parts, in what used to be known as the Great American Desert, it falls with the weight of an astounding gift. It falls like money. (Jonathan Raban about Baker)

Montana From A - Z

This is a great ABC list about Montana

from Montana

(words by Charles C. Cohan, music by Joseph E. Howard)

Items of Interest

• Montana is the fourth largest state with the forty-fourth largest population.
• 46 out of Montana's 56 counties have an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile.
• In 1888 Helena had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.
• In Montana the elk, deer and antelope populations outnumber the humans.
• No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana.
• Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.
• The state has the largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower United States.
• At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls more golden eagles have been seen in a single day than anywhere else in the country.
• North of Missoula is the largest population of nesting common loons in the western United States.
• The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England.
• Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay.
• The notorious outlaw, Henry Plummer, built the first jail constructed in the state.
• Miles City is known as the Cowboy Capitol.
• Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation.
• The first luge run in North America was built at Lolo Hot Springs on Lolo Pass in 1965.
• Just south of Billings is Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his troops made their last stand.
• Montana is home to seven Indian reservations.
• The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park is considered one of the most scenic drives in America.
• The Roe River near Great Falls is one of the two shortest rivers in the world. The length varies from 58 feet to 200 feet. The source of the river is Giant Springs, the largest freshwater spring in the US.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

• Jeff Ament - musician, member of Pearl Jam
• Dorothy Baker (1907-1968) - author (Missoula)
• Dirk Benedict (1945- ) - actor (Helena)
• Eric Bergoust - Olympic skier
• W. A. Tony Boyle - labor union official (Bald Butte)
• Dana Carvey - comedian (Missoula)
• Gary Cooper (1901-1961) - actor (Helena)
• John Cowan - founder of Helena
• Marcus Daly (1841-1900) - founded the city of Anaconda
• Alfred Bertram Guthrie (1901-1981) - Pulitzer Prize-winning author (lived in Choteau)
• Jack Horner - fossil hunter, paleontologist (Shelby)
• Chet Huntley (1911-1974) - journalist, commentator (Caldwell)
• Dorothy Johnson - author
• Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (1938- ) - motorcycle daredevil (Butte)
• Will James (1892-1942) writer, artist (Great Falls)
• Jerry Kramer (1936- ) - football player, author (Jordan)
• Levi Leipheimer - bicycle racer
• Myrna Loy (1905-1993) - actress (Helena)
• David Lynch (1946- ) - filmmaker (Missoula)
• Dave McNally (1942-2002) - only baseball pitcher to hit a grand slam home run in a World Series (Billings)
• Mike Mansfield (1903-2001) - U.S. senator from MT 1961 - 1977, ambassador (raised in Great Falls)
• George Montgomery (1916-2000) - actor (Brady)
• Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) - suffragist, first woman in the U.S. congress, only member to vote against entering both WWI and WWII (Missoula)
• Martha Raye - actress (Butte)
• Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926) - western painter, sculptor, historian, writer, environmentalist, outdoorsman (moved to Judith Basin in 1880)
• Sacagawea (ca1787-ca1812) - guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition
• Michael Smuin - choreographer
• Doug Swingly - four-time winner of the Iditarod Sled dog race
• Lester C. Thurow - economist, educator (Livingston)
• Washakie (ca1804-1900) - native American leader

You know you are from Montana if...

• The wind is faster than your truck
• Every other vehicle is a 4x4
• When the sun goes down you start looking for your coat
• In March your vehicle is 43% mud
• You leave your keys in the car and the next morning it's still there
• You installed your new computer using a leatherman tool
• You hear the words "stream" or "brook" pronounced "crick"
• The elevation exceeds the population
• You've broken down on the highway and somebody stops to help you
• You can see the stars at night
• People drive 200 miles to shop in a real mall
• Your great grandmother is older than the courthouse
• You got a set of snow tires for Valentines Day
• The bumper jack in your pickup will lift a house
• Your back yard smells like sagebrush or various animals
• A girls' basketball game fills the gym
• You slept through the night unawakened by a siren
• A rodeo is more popular than a rock concert
• You can fish, golf, and go skiing all in the same day if you try hard enough
• Yellow light means "follow the car in front of you no matter what"
• Democrats are like salmon, they are on the endangered species list
• You wave to someone on the freeway because you recognize the truck
• You talk about a combine and people don't wonder what you are putting together
• In the spring every tenth car you pass is a tractor
• Someone says manure spreader and you know it isn't the local congressman
• When the car in front of you is weaving you suspect a farmer instead of a drunk
• You can actually pronounce the City's name Glasgow (Glasgo) without calling it Glascow
• Maps and gloves are kept in your vehicles "jockey box"|
• You can choose plastic bags or a paper sacks for your groceries
• You actually get these jokes and forward them to all your Montana friends