Montana
State in western USA, on the Canadian border; nicknamed Treasure State
Area:
318,100 sq km/147,143 sq mi
Capital:
Helena
Towns and Cities:
Billings, Great Falls, Butte
Physical:
Mountainous forests in the W, rolling grasslands in the E; Missouri,
Yellowstone, and Little Bighorn rivers; Glacier national park, on the
Continental Divide; Waterton Glacier international peace park (a World
Heritage Site); part of Yellowstone national park; Missouri Headwaters
state park; National Bison Range; Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater
lake W of the Mississippi; Madison Buffalo Jump state park, with a preserved
cliff where the Plains Indians stampeded bison to their deaths
Features:
Bannack, a frontier boom town, now a ghost town; Little Bighorn Battlefield
national monument, the site of Custer's last stand, 1876; Big Hole national
battlefield, the site of the battle between the US cavalry and the Nez
Percé, 1877; Moss Mansion, Billings (1903); the Museum of the Plains
Indians, Browning; gold rush mansions in Helena; C M Russell Museum,
Great Falls, with works by the cowboy artist Charles Marion Russell;
Our Lady of the Rockies, a 27-m/90-ft illuminated statue of the Virgin
Mary on the Continental Divide, above Butte; hunting and ski resorts
Products:
Wheat (under irrigation), cattle, coal, copper, oil, natural gas, lumber,
wood products
Population:
(1995) 870,300
Famous People:
Gary Cooper, Myrna Loy
History:
Explored for France by Verendrye early 1740s; passed to the USA 1803
in the Louisiana Purchase; first settled 1809; W Montana obtained
from Britain in the Oregon Treaty 1846; influx of gold- seeking
immigrants mid-19th century; fierce wars against the Native Americans
1867-77, which included `Custer's last stand´ at the Little Bighorn
with the Sioux; achieved statehood 1889. Energy production, in
the form of oil, natural gas, and strip-mined coal, has replaced
precious metals and copper in mineral exploitation. The plains
area still produces grain crops, sheep, and cattle.
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