Montana
Glacier County, in Montana, is 80 percent Indian reservation, it is the home of the Blackfeet tribe.
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Jordon, Montana of Garfield County is the most isolated county seat in the contiguous United States. It is called the "lonesomest town in the world," it is 175 miles from the nearest airport and 115 miles from the nearest rail depot.
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400,000 Douglas Firs are cut each year in Lincoln County, Montana for use as Christmas trees.
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Montana cattle brings more into the state economy than wheat.
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Bluebunch wheatgrass, Montana's state grass, is useful for building soil and preventing erosion.
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The town of Dupuyer, Montana got it's name from the French word for the back fat of a Bison, considered a delicacy.
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The towns of Circle and Two Dot, Montana were both named after cattle brands.
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When a million prehistoric grasshoppers of a now-extinct species got caught in a storm and died in the cold, they landed on a glacier where are now embedded in ice in the Grasshopper Glacier in the Beartooth Mountains, in Montana, at 11,000 feet.
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Great Falls, Montana is called the Electric City because five hydroelectric dams on the Missouri River largely obscure the great falls.
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About 25 percent of the Lewis & Clark expedition took place inside the modern-day boundaries of Montana. more than any other state.
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The highest point in Montana is Granite Peak at 12,799 feet, in the Beartooth Mountains.
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Montana,s Yogo sapphires are some of the highest quality in the world. They are part of the Crown Jewels of England.
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Flathead lake in northwest Montana contains over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. It is considered the largest natural freshwater lake in the west.
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Miles City, Montana is known as the Cowboy Capitol.
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The Paddlefish, which can weigh one hundred pounds, was thought to be extinct until a man accidentally caught one in the Missouri river in 1962 near Fairview, Montana. China is the only other country in the world, where paddlefish are found.
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Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Range wrapping around Fort peck lake is the second largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states at 1.1 million acres.
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48 % of Montana residents currently live in rural areas compared to a national average of 25 %
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There are more than 60 ghost towns in the state of Montana.
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Between 1921 and 1925 50% of Montana farmers lost their homesteads to mortgage foreclosure.
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74% of the rail cars leaving Montana are filled with coal, farm products fill another 10% and lumber accounting for 5%.
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The Whoop Up Trail between Fort Benton, MT and Canada got named after a trader was asked how things were going on the trail and he replied, "They're sure whooping it up" referring to Indians trading for whisky.
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99 military forts were built in Montana between 1807 and 1885, more than one per year.
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Lewis & Clark Caverns, the states first park, established in 1937, is one of the largest limestone caverns in the northwest portion of the nation.
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Tower Rock on the Missouri River near cascade, is the most recent addition to the state park system, added in 2004.
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West Yellowstone, with 150 inches of snow annualy and 600 miles of groomed trail, bills itself as the "snow mobile capital of the world."
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Cooke City, with an average snowfall of 205 inches, is the official test site and promotional filming grounds of both Yamaha and Artic Cat snowmobiles.
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The Yellowstone, in Montana is the only major un-dammed river in the lower 48 states.
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Montana, with a population of barely 9.67 million tourists in a typical year, about 10 tourists for every resident.
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There are about 1900 lakes in Montana, covering some 400,000 acres.
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Wheat Montana Farms and bakery near Three Forks, MT where they "sow it, grow it, and dough it" is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for turning standing wheat in a field into 13 loaves of bread in eight minutes, thirteen seconds.
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In Havre, MT you can tour an entire underground discrict built after fire swept through town in 1904, destroying the above ground business district.
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70 percent of Montana's stream flow originates from melting snow.
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96 percent of all the water used in Montana is used for irrigation, compared to 1.8 percent used for domestic purposes.
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It was 12:20 for 115 years in Fort Benton, Montana, after money ran out in 1884 as the courthouse was being built, so a fake clock made of plywood was installed. In 1999 school children raised the $750 for a real clock to be installed.
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Fort Harrison, built in 1892, was the final fort established in Montana. Now it is a Veterans hospital and National gard training ground located outside Helena.
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Bannock was the capital of Montana Territory about eight months before the capital was transferred to Virginia City. Ten years later the capital was moved to Helena.
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Golden Valley county had Montana's first women sheriff, Ruth Garfield, who served from 1920 to 1922. She was appointed after her husband was killed in the line of duty.
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24 lives were lost in June of 1938 when a railroad bridge collapsed sending a Montana train known as the Olympian hurtling into Custer Creek.
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In 1935 Bob Fletcher was able to convince the Highway Department to become the first state to mount historical markers along the highways. There are 173 historical markers located around Montana.
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Three workers died during the construction of the precarious Going-to-the-Sun-Road, which is 52 miles long. The employee turnover rate was 300 percent.
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The movie "A River Runs Through It" was filmed in Bozeman, Livingston and Seeley Lake because the Blackfoot River was too difficult to set up scenes.
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When a circus elephant sat down in a ditch, blocking the water flow used for power generation, Big Timber, Montana went without power briefly in 1902.
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There are 10 species of snakes that live in Montana, only one of which is poisonous - the prairie rattlesnake.
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Flathead Lake, in Montana, was frozen over only seven times in the last 50 years.
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The Absarokees is thought to be the only Plains tribe that never made war against the white man.
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The Museum of Northern Plains in Fort Benton, MT is where you would find the bison that served as the model for the buffalo nickel and the 1901 ten dollar bill.
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Our lady of the Rockies, a 90 foot statue of the Madonna, stands on top of a ridge high above Butte, Montana.
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Montana,s first and oldest library, founded in 1868, is in Helena -Lewis & Clark County Library.
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Flathead national Forest, the largest og ten national forest in Montana with 2.3 million acres is about half the size od Delaware and Rhode island combined.
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When parking meters were installed, cowboys insisted on putting their money into them and tying their horses to them, causing controversy in Havre, Montana.
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During the Great Depression, Fort Peck Dam was constructed using the single largest expenditure of federal money in Montana.
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In 1873 bison hides totaling 1,508,000 were shipped from Montana to Saint Louis, MO
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President Benjamin Harrison issued the proclamation declaring Montana a state.
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The advent of the railroad ended the cattle drives from Texas to Montana.
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Blackfeet artist Jaty Laber uses rusted abandoned car parts to build his life size sculptures.
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Alaska is the only state that has a higher per capita rate of private airplane ownership than Montana.
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John Steinbeck said of Montana, "For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it's difficult to analyze love when you're in it."
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97 Movies were shot in Montana between 1897 and 2003
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A bridge over the Missouri River near Craig, Montana was the scene for the climatic shootout between FBI men and the gangsters in "The Untouchables" movie starring Sean Connery and Kevin Costner.
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Smithsonian Institution ranked the art deco Washoe Theater in Anaconda as the fifth best in the nation for its architecture.
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Battle of the Little Big Horn, in Montana, known as Custer's last stand, had the largest number of Indians ever gathered togeather for a single battle. Indian numbers were estimated from 10,000 to 15,000, including more than 2,500 warriors.
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The thermometer registered 70 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature it was capable of recording, at Rogers Pass on Janurary 20, 1954, when Montana set the record the coldest temperature ever recorded in the continental U.S.
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A sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England.
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Between 1974 and 1984, Browning High School on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, won 11 state championships in cross country running.
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The Chinook High School Sugar beeters won nationwide attention on the "Late Night with David Letterman" for having the strangest mascot.
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Missoula, Montana hosts the International Wildlife Film Festival. The largest, longest running festival of its kind in the world, attended by 10,000 people.
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Butte, Montana gave birth to the game of "Keno" when a cigar store manager adapted it from a Chinese gambling game and then took it to Las vegas.
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The Great Montana Centennial Cattle Drive, celebrating the states 100th birthday, drew 3000 cattle, 3500 horses, 3000 riders and 300 wagons to Roundup, Montana
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Butte, Montana was home to the "Dumas", America's longest operating house of "ill repute", which opened on 1890, closed in 1982, and later reopened as a museum dedicated to that lifestyle.
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Photoplayers, huge organs used in movie theaters during the silent film era to provide music and sound effects, are rare today. Virginia City Opera House in Montana has one of the four that are known to exist today.
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The great northern Town Center of Helena, has a unique carousel that features animals native to Montana, such as bison and bighorn sheep.
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In 1864 President Abrahan Lincoln signed a measure creating the Montana Territory.
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In 1996 the 81 day stand off ended as 16 remaining members known as the Freeman, an anti-goverment group surrendered to the FBI and left their Montana Ranch located by Circle, Montana.
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June 25, In 1876 Lt. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvery were wiped out by the Sioux & Cheyenne Indians in the battle of the Little Big Horn.
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Montana has more bookstores, birdwatchers, firearms, people who hunt, and people who fish per capita than any other state.
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Montana is larger than Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy. If Montana were to secede from the union it would be the 62nd largest country in the world.
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Tweets originating from inside the state of Montana are longer than those from any other state - averaging just more than 43 of 140 possible characters in length.
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By law it is a felony in Montana for a wife to open her husband's mail.
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Montana is the only state borderring three Canadian provinces; Sackatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
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When the Great Falls High School was built in 1896, a herd of sheep was used to compact the earth around the foundation.
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Jordon, Montana, the county seat for Garfield County, is 175 miles from the nearest airport, 85 miles from the nearest Bus line and 115 miles from the nearest train.
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It is perfectly legal in Montana to ride your horse home if you are drunk.
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Montana is the only state to allow double proxy weddings. In other words, both the bride and groom can have stand-insge matrimonial vows on their behalf. Double proxy divorces, unfortunately, do not exist.
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Montana is the only state with rivers that drain into three different oceans; the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean (by virtue of its drainage into Canada's Hudson Bay.)
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Montana has more residents (8,529 per 10,000 people) serving in the U.S Millitery than any other state ... yet it is the only state with-out a naval ship named in its honor.
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An earthquake in 1959 caused Hebgen lake in Gallatin County, Montana to recede 22 feet, leaving a wide gravel beech along its lake front.
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In 1903 the library in Bozeman, Montana was intentionally built across the street from the city's red light district and opium dens.
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Montana is the only state in the U.S. that does not have any standard ban on texing behind the wheel.
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The Montana state constitution mandates that all students must learn American History, culture and hertage.
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A cowboy once insisted on riding his horse to his room in the Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton, Montana. When the manager objected, the two exchanged gunfire. The cowboy was killed before he and his horse made it to the top of the stairs. Fourteen bullets were later removed from his body.
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A Gideon bible was first placed inside a hotel room in Montana.
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The bed of Bison bones at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park in Montana is 13 feet deep.
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Fort Peck Dam is the largest earth filled dam in the world and a photo of it was the first photo to grac the cover of Life magazine on Noverman 23, 1936.
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It is illeagel to operate a vehicle with ice picks in the tires within the city limites of Whitehall, Montana.
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46 of Montana's 56 counties are still considered :|"frontier counties" with fewer than 6 residents per square mile.
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Mary Fields, who was born into slavery in 1832 and who would later become known as "Stagecoach Mary," was one of the toughest women in Montana Territory. She was described as "tart tongued, gun toting, hard drinking, cigar-pipe-smoking, 6 foot tall, 200 pound black women who was tough enough to take on any two men". She arrived in Montana to help establish mission schools on the Cheyenne, Crow, Blackfoot and Fort Belknap indian reservations.
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Montana permits urinating along the side of the road (so as long as he or she attempts to be modest and does not bother anyone elst in the process.)
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Montana has more one room school houses, around 90 - than any other state in the United States.
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Montana has more than 29,000 family farms and ranches covering 66 per cent of the states land mass.
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In 1993 the town of Ismay , Montana unofficially changed its name to Joe. Montana as part of a well-organized puplicity stunt by the Kansas City Chiefs to honor the Quarterback Joe Montana.
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The only place where you can cross the Canada-United States border with out having to show and form of ID or documentation is when you are on a cruise from Waterton, Alberta to Goat-Hunt, Montana located on Waterton Lake.
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Cattle rustling in Montana is still punishable by hanging.
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There are 77 mountain ranges in Montana and 2,991 mountain peaks with names ... none of which are among the 50 tallest in the United States.
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During a smallpox epidemic in the early 1800's two Crow Indian boys rode a white horse over a cliff to sacrifice their lives to save their tribe from the disease. The exact location of that cliff is believed to be along the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana.
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According to the folklore of the Crow Nation, the little people of Montana's Pryor Mountains were dwarves and fearsome they could tear the heart out of an emmeys horse.
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In 1960 the late Senator Ted Kennedy rode a buckingbronco named Skyrocket at a rodeo in Miles city, Montana while stumping for his brothet John for the President of the United States.
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It is illegal in Montana for a married women to go fishing alone on Sundays. It is also ilegal for unmarried women to fish alone at all.
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Stars who call Montana home (at leastr part of the year) include Michael Keaton (Big Timber), David Letterman (Choteau). Huey Lewis (Stevensville). Dennis Quaid ( Pray) Al Geddings (Pray), Bill Pullman (Whitehall), Howie long (Flathead Lake), John Mayer (Bozeman), Tom Brokaw (Livington), Ted Turner (Gallatin Gateway).
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Montana has fewer acres of wet land than any other state.
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Montana has almost three times as many cows than it has people.
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Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish revolutionary convicted of treason and exiled to a penal colony in Tasmania before he served as Montana's territorial secretary and governor. - 1867 He died when he fell from a boat into the fast waters at Fort Benton, Montana
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Nearly one forth of Montana - 22.4 million acres are forested. And the common tree in the state of Montana is the Ponderosa pine, which was formally adopted as the state tree in 1949 at the urging of the Montana federation of Garden Clubs.
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In 1867 the United States Congress annulled all legislation passed by the 2ed and 3rd assemblies of the Montana Territory, an un-precedented act in American history.
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Montana was the first state to adopt a State Lullaby.
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Montana has more species of mammals (108) than any other U.S. state.
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Montana was the last state to establish an age for buying cigarettes.
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The first federal census in 1870 showed only 20,595 people living in the Montana Territory.
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The population of Petroleum Country, Montana. is just 494 people despite being larger than the state of
Rhode Island.
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Before being named the Montana Territory, Congress considered naming the state "Shoshone" to honor the indians who lived in the state and "Jefferson" to honor the former President who commissioned the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
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For over 100 years no one knew the name of the person who sculpted the bronze sculpture of a women that sits atop Montana's Capitol dome or where it came from.
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Roy, Montana (Pop 108) owes its name to a spelling mistake. When Walter H. Peck estabilished a post office on his ranch in1892 he requested the name of Ray in honor of a relative. However, someone in Washington D.C. misread the application and returned it with the name Roy instead.
