Montana has around 70,000 Native People and eight Native Nations.1)
Montana is the fourth biggest state in the United States, behind Alaska, Texas, and California. Despite its size, it has the third lowest population density of any state.2)
Many of the frontiersmen who settled Montana were gold prospectors. The land's mineral wealth gave it the moniker “Treasure State”.3)
Several enormous species call Montana home: grizzly bears, moose, bighorn sheep, and bison, to mention a few.4)
Approximately 30% of Montana has public land, the 12th largest percentage among the US states.5)
Helena, Montana's capital city, began as a mining town in 1864, when four miners struck gold in “Last Chance Gultch”.6)
Glacier National Park in Montana, known as the “Crown of the Continent”, has some of the most beautiful panoramas in North America and over 700 miles of hiking trails.7)
From 1888 to 1898, the “Buffalo Soldiers” were a group of African American soldiers who helped protect Montana settlements from Native American attacks.8)
The renowned “Battle of the Little Bighorn” took place in Montana Territory in 1876. The conflict was between US government forces and a group of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Native People.9)
Black Montanan troops organized the 25th Army Bicycle Corps in the 1890s to test the practicality of bike-mounted warriors.10)
A.B. Guthrie remarked on the majesty of the Montana sky in a letter to his son. In his novel of the same name, A.B. Guthrie Jr. established one of the state's nicknames, “Big Sky Country”.11)
Jeannette Rankin of Missoula, Montana, was the first woman elected to the United States Congress in 1916.12)
Montana's Gallatin River is the setting of the iconic fly-fishing scene in the movie A River Runs Through It.13)
Montana is the only state in the United States that has a “triple divide” where three drainage basins intersect. Montana's water goes to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as the Hudson Bay.14)
The Battle of the Little Bighorn is also known as “Custer's Last Stand,” since the defeat infuriated white Americans, leading to increased bloodshed against native tribes and the eventual incarceration of many native peoples on reservations.15)
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the US forces at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, while Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led the Native American warriors.16)
The native tribes' triumph over US forces was the biggest single victory by Native Americans in the Plains Indians War.17)
Montana's state motto is “Oro y Plata,” which translates as “Gold and Silver,” and refers to the state's prospecting days.18)
Montana has the biggest recorded snowfall, measuring 15 inches in diameter.19)
Montana has the most native mammal animal species of any state in the United States.20)
The “Tufts-Love Rex”, one of just 15 entire Tyrannosaurus Rex bones ever discovered, was discovered in Hell's Creek, Montana, in 2016.21)
The grizzly bear is the state animal of Montana.22)
The western meadowlark is its state bird.23)
The blackspotted cutthroat trout is the state fish.24)
Montana Yogo sapphires are very uncommon gemstones found in the state's Yogo Gulch. In the late 1800s, they were discovered by chance by a gold prospector named Jake Hoover.25)
Montana became the 41st state of the United States in 1889.26)
Early Montana Territory settlers frequently established vigilante organizations to deal with horse and livestock thefts.27)
Norman Montanans In 1962, Jeff Holter and Bruce Del Mar devised the cardiac monitor.28)