Montana, nicknamed
"Big Sky Country" for its expansive skies, got its name from the
Spanish word, "montaņa", in reference to the Rocky Mountains.
Montana's eastern 2/3 is part of the Great Plains region with an
agricultural and ranch based economy. The western third is
dominated by the Rocky Mountains. Montana is the fourth largest
US state.
Most of the people are in the mountainous western parts of
Montana. Great Falls, in the eastern foothills of the Rockies,
Missoula, Helena, the state capital, and Bozeman are all in the
hill country. Billings, the state's largest city, is situated in
the south central portion of the state and is nearly surrounded
by four mountain ranges: the Beartooths to the southwest, the
Crazy Mountains to the west, the Pryor Range to the southeast
and the Snowies to the north.
The first major appearance by white men in the territory was
made by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804. Later, fur
trappers and traders were followed by Roman Catholic
missionaries. They built Saint Mary's, a mission generally
thought to be the first permanent white settlement in Montana.
As with many areas of the west, the territory experienced both
boom and bust times. Populations soared when gold was discovered
in the 1860s, but those boomtowns became ghost towns when the
precious ore played out. An exception was Butte, just southwest
of Helena. Although silver was a large part of its economy, it
was copper that was to be its mainstay. One of the largest
copper producers in the world, the Anaconda Mining Company, came
together as an amalgamation of several smaller mining
operations.
Today, much of Montana is set aside as wilderness preservation
area, including the 1 million acre Glacier National Park and 1.5
million total acres in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Great
Bear Wilderness Area complexes. Other attractions for outdoor
lovers include the Yellowstone River, the Missouri River, Fort
Peck Reservoir and Flathead Lake. In addition, the state has
scattered state parks and National Forest recreation areas,
including Kootenai National Forest, Flathead National Forest,
Lolo National Forest and Bitterroot National Forest.
