Native American tribes including the Blackfeet, Crow, Cheyenne, and Sioux hunted vast herds of bison on Montana's high plains for centuries before white settlers arrived in the territory, and to this day the state is home to one of the most significant populations of Native Americans in the United States. French Canadian fur trappers traded briefly with the Native Americans in Montana in the 1740's but the territory remained virtually free of white settlers until after it was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the territory in 1805 and soon afterward fur trappers, this time Americans, were again trading in the region.
In 1807 Manuel Lisa constructed the first fort in Montana, Fort Manuel, at the junction of the Big Horn and Yellowstone rivers, and in the years which followed the North West Company established many transient trading posts throughout the territory. It was not until 1840 however, that Father P.J. De Smet, a Catholic priest who had been invited to the territory by the Flathead Indians, founded St. Mary's Mission, the first permanent settlement. While settlers were swarming by the thousands to California and Oregon at this time, most of the Native Americans were still very hostile in Montana and the territory did not see any significant influx of settlers until after the Civil War when the United States Army had troops available to protect American interests in the region.
The discovery of gold deposits at Bannack in 1862 and Alder Gulch in 1864 brought the first major wave of white men into Montana, and in 1866 the first cattle arrived in the region from Texas via the Bozeman Trail. Incoming settlers not only encroached upon territories claimed by the Native Americans, but they actively usurped reservations which had been specifically allotted to the tribes by the Federal Government. When gold was discovered in territory which had previously been granted solely to the Sioux, the government sent Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. Seventh Cavalry to take the land back. Custer found Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief, and Crazy Horse, the Sioux war leader, camped on the Little Bighorn River. Custer vastly underestimated the number of Sioux and Cheyenne present and decided to attack the tribes immediately. Every man in Custer's battalion, including Custer himself, was killed in the Battle of Little Big Horn, which later became known by the romantic name of Custers Last Stand.
Despite their victory at Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were forced to flee to Canada with their warriors, and after an extremely difficult winter, Crazy Horse was persuaded by his uncle to surrender. He returned to Fort Robinson, Montana in 1877 and was shot while resisting imprisonment for allegedly planning a revolt. Sitting Bull was imprisoned but was later allowed to return to Standing Rock Reservation, and later went on to travel with Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show before he was killed during an Indian dispute at Standung Rock Reservation, South Dakota.
Another major conflict with the Native Americans was provoked in 1877 when the Nez Perce tribe, who had originally been friendly toward the settlers, were forced to cede their land, upon which gold had been discovered, in return for new reservation in Oregon and Idaho. After gold was discovered on the new reservation, the federal government tried to dissolve that agreement as well. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce resisted, and won a major battle against the U.S. Army, despite being massively outnumbered, at Big Hole Basin, Montana. He was leading his people to safety in Canada when they were stopped 48 miles from the border, the so-called "Medicine Line" boundary. In an attempt to save his tribe, Chief Joseph surrendered and his people were forced marched to a malaria infested camp in Oklahoma were most succumbed to the disease.
The 1880's was a boom decade for the territory. In 1880 a copper vein was uncovered which soon earned the tiny town of Butte, Montana the nickname "the richest hill on Earth.ΓÇ¥ Cattle ranching became a major industry in the territory during that decade as well, despite the severe winter of 1886-87, which wiped out most of the herds. The money which was pouring in from the mines helped the region's cattle business recover quickly and in 1889 Montana officially joined the Union as the 41st state.
The early years of the twentieth century saw yet another population boom in Montana as thousand of homesteaders came in to farm wheat on the state's vast plains. Unfortunately, over use of the state's semi-arid soil and a massive drought led to dust bowl conditions by 1919 and the farmers began to disappear as quickly as they had arrived. For the next three decades Montana was dominated by economic depression. The great demand for copper associated with World War II, along with the federal projects which followed the war, such as the Missouri River's Fort Peck Dam (which is the largest Earth-filled dam in the world), finally managed to revitalize the state's economy.
In the 1950's and 60's, substantial deposits of oil were found in Montana and the state's economic future grew even brighter. The economy faltered slightly after the state's largest employer, the Anaconda Mining Company, endured a 250 day strike which cost over $3.4 million in wages in 1967, but the energy crisis of the 1970's brought recovery to the state's mining industries once again.
Today Montana is the fourth largest and the fourth least populated of the of the United States. Beaverhead County, Montana is larger than the state of Connecticut but less populated than most U.S. towns. It has only two high schools, one with fewer than 100 pupils. While to many Americans places like Beaverhead County may make Montana seem like a strange place to live, it is its lack of residents which makes Montana a naturally beautiful place to visit, and vast numbers of tourist from around the world come to see its unspoiled wilderness each year.
Visiting the State
Crow Indians and whites re-enact the Battle of Little Bighorn on their reservation in Custer Country and feature rodeos, square dancing, and games on horseback.
Blackfeet Indian Reservation
Crystal Park where the public can dig for quartz and amethysts; Sapphires Park, where the public can dig for sapphires, etc.
Chinook Blaine County Museum features artifacts and history from Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians.
Next to Alaska, Montana boasts the longest dog sled race
Fort Union Trading Post, on the North Dakota border, was one of the area's premier fur-trading posts. Today it is a National Historic Site.
Garnet Ghost Town: site of 1890's gold rush.
Glacier Country: Glacier National Park has Trail of the Great Bear from Yellowstone to Banff/Jasper, Calgary in Canada.
At Hell Roarin' Gulch, the World Museum of Mining has complete 1905 mining camp and equipment.
Lewis and Clark Trail: A quarter of it is in Montana along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers; annual Lewis and Clark festival in Great Falls; Lewis and Clark National Forest; Pompeys pillar features William Clark's name in the stone.
Missouri River Country: the Badlands, Million Acre Wildlife Refuge.
Montana's has 10 national forests, including Beaverhead, Bitterroot, Custer, Deerlodge, Flathead, Gallatin, Helena, Kootenai, Lewis & Clark, and Lolo.
Native American rock paintings at Pictograph Cave State Park, near Billings.
Montana's Rocky Mountains, carved by glaciers, are still home to many wild animals and big game, including antelope, grizzly and black bears, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bison, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes.
Montana has more than 40 state parks, including Whitefish Lake, Lone pine, Flathead Lake, Beavertail Hill, Fort Owen, Lost Creek, Canyon Ferry, Giant Springs, Sluice Boxes, Clark's Lookout, Smith River, and Natural Bridge.
Thompson Falls features the Old Jail Museum, Wild Goose Landing Park, and the beautiful Blue Slide region.
Wilderness Areas include: Anaconda-Pintler, Absaroka-Beartooth, Bob Marshall, Cabinet Mountains, Gates of the Mountains, Great Bear, Lee Metcalf, Mission Mountains, Scapegoat, Selway-Bitterroot, Welcome Creek, Rattlesnake Wilderness, and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
Famous Montanans
Chief Joseph (b. OR 1840?-1904) Nez Perce Indian who outwitted the U.S. Army in the late 1870's.
Crazy Horse (1849?-1877) Oglala Sioux Indian Chief who led the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Battle at Little Big Horn, Montana.
Gary Cooper (b. Frank James Cooper 1901-1961) Famed movie actor. Born Helena, Montana.
Dorothy Johnson (b. IA 1895-1984) Writer whose stories were made into such Westerns as The Hanging Tree and A Man Called Horse.
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) Represented Montana as the first woman member of the United States Congress. She was the only U.S. Representative to vote against American participation in both world wars.
Fascinating Fact
Dot and Lin's Exotic Animal Ranch in Plentywood raises "fainting goats" that, when startled, which is often, "become stiff and keel over as if they were dead."
Montana adopted its state flag in 1905 and modified it in 1981. Featuring a blue background with "Montana" prominently written in yellow, the flag also features the state seal and the state motto.
