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The city of Anaconda, Montana, located 250 mi/400 km west of Billings, is a reminder of the great mining days of the 1800s and early 1900s. It was originally named Copperopolis, because copper barons built their mansions as quickly as they could dole...
Categories: Anaconda
Categories: Babb
The scenic community of Big Sky, Montana rests high in the Gallatin National Forest, where Lone Mountain, at 11,166 feet, towers over the community. Big Sky is home to the Big Sky Ski and Summer Resort, a year-round playground for outdoor recreationi...
Categories: Big Sky
The lakeside village of Bigfork is a year-round resort nestled on picturesque Bigfork Bay. It's also known as an arts colony: It has a playhouse and plenty of crafts shops and art galleries. Golf is a popular summer pursuit in the area—there are nine...
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It is nicknamed the Magic City because of its rapid growth from its founding as a railroad town in 1882. It was said that Billings "grew like magic." Billings is named for Frederick H. Billings, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Due to Bill...
Categories: Billings
Located in the heart of southwesten Montana's Rocky Mountains, just 90 miles south of Yellowstone Park, Bozeman is a mecca of year-round outdoor recreation and offers some of the world's finest fly-fishing, skiing, hiking, camping, biking, rafting, c...
Categories: Bozeman
Bridger Bowl Ski Area, one of Montana's most popular slopes, lies 16 mi/26 km northeast of Bozeman. There are 1,800 acres/728 hectares of skiable terrain, including an additional 400 acres/161 hectares in the Slushman's area. Bridger Bowl has 71 runs...
Categories: Bridger Bowl Ski Area
Browning is a town that lies within the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, located nearby Glacier National Park, home of the only remaining glaciers in North America. Visitors can experience scenic views of pristine forests, spectacular lakes, alpine mead...
Categories: Browning
When Butte was a rip-roaring copper town, there were two things to do—work in the mines and drink in the saloons. Your choices aren't quite so limited these days. The city's rich history has been preserved—with a kind of rambunctious elegance—in ever...
Categories: Butte
Cooke City, located in the heart of the Beartooth Mountains and bordered by the Custer, Shoshone and Gallatin national forests, offers breathtaking scenery and small-town charm. The city is only slightly more than 3 mi/5 km beyond the Northeast Entra...
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Categories: Cut Bank
Categories: East Glacier Park
In 1865, a lumberman, Zachariah Sales and his family settled near the entrance of the Gallatin Canyon. Here he established a sawmill attracting other families to settle in the area as well. By 1928, a large community was formed. Gallatin County lies ...
Categories: Gallatin Gateway
Gardiner is located at the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park in southwest Montana. The Roosevelt Arch, dedicated in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, provides a gateway to Yellowstone from this entrance. Gardiner is a quaint western tow...
Categories: Gardiner
Glacier National Park was established to protect the area's spectacular scenic values, as characterized by the geologic features of the Rocky Mountains and valleys and the native plant and animal life. The park encompasses approximately 1.4 milli...
Categories: Glacier National Park
The waterfalls that gave this city its name were an important signpost for Lewis and Clark as they passed along the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark encountered five waterfalls; four of those cataracts are in the near vicinity of Great Falls. One of t...
Categories: Great Falls
Categories: Greenough
Categories: Havre MT
Helena, the state capital located 225 mi/360 km northwest of Billings, began in the 1860s as a gold-rush boomtown. Today, it's home to the old Queen Anne-style governor's mansion, the Greek Renaissance-style state Capitol (with a dome of copper mined...
Categories: Helena MT
Located in the northwest part of the state, 420 mi/675 km northwest of Billings, Kalispell is in the heart of the Flathead Valley, a popular area for visitors. The main visitor attraction in town is the Conrad Mansion National Historic Site, the 1890...
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This large, impressive battlefield, 55 mi/89 km southeast of Billings, memorializes one of the final armed efforts by Native Americans to preserve their land and way of life. On 25-26 June 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and 12 companies of th...
Categories: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
A stop in Livingston, Montana, 25 mi/40 km west of Bozeman, is a "must-do" for art-loving visitors to Yellowstone National Park. Livingston is just an hour's drive through gorgeous Paradise Valley from Yellowstone, and is home to more than a dozen ar...
Categories: Livingston MT
Categories: Malta MT
Known as "Garden City" for its lush green landscape, Missoula lies in the heart of the northern Rockies in Western Montana where five valleys converge and serves as a center for education, medicine, retail and arts. Located at the base of Mount Senti...
Categories: Missoula
Categories: Missouri River
Categories: Philipsburg MT
Pray is located along the Yellowstone River between Livingston and Yellowstone National Park. Pray offers picturesque views of the Absaroka Mountain Range in the Gallatin National Forest.
Categories: Pray
Cross the stunning Beartooth Highway from Cooke City to reach the town of Red Lodge. Located 60 mi/96 km south of Billings, the city is home to music festivals and rodeos, elegant restaurants and down-home cafes, an alpine ski area and a thriving agr...
Categories: Red Lodge
Categories: St. Regis
To the southwest of Bozeman is Virginia City, once a booming gold-mining town and the territorial capital, now distinguished by its vast collection of restored and furnished buildings. They include theaters, hotels and the Vigilante Barn, which many ...
Categories: Virginia City MT
Whitefish is one of the most scenic, breathtaking areas in America and is surrounded on three sides by picturesque mountain peaks. This alpine village offers summer activities including the most scenic gondola ride in the Northwest. Whitefish still r...
Categories: Whitefish
Although Montana is no longer the Wild West, it remains a state where the wildlife outnumbers the people. Its independent, friendly residents treasure the solitude Montana's wilderness areas provide, and they do all they can to protect them.
Travel into the backcountry of Glacier National Park, and you'll find unspoiled scenery that looks much as it has for centuries to go along with the scenic vistas and outdoor adventure. However, for those who like to keep the modern world close at hand, there is a wide variety of comfortable guest ranches and resorts, and thriving cities with plenty of cultural offerings.
So the choice is yours: You can explore historic sites or ski across world-class terrain. At night you can camp in a secluded corner all your own or stay at a luxurious lodge. The range of possibilities may surprise you. Just be sure to spend some time outdoors, whether it's with a backpack, a canoe or a golf cart. Montana's panoramas of mountains, lakes, rivers and ranches will disappoint no one.
Geography
The western portion of Montana is mountainous (the Rockies), with striking alpine vistas. The eastern portion contains some small island mountain ranges but is largely made up of prairie grasslands. The state has an abundance of rich agricultural farmland and large cattle ranches. History
In the mid-1700s, the tribes that called this area home—the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Crow and Assiniboine—were primarily bison hunters who followed the migrating herds that occupied the region. They traded with early French fur traders.
Even after the Louisiana Purchase (of which Montana was part) and the ensuing exploration by Lewis and Clark, Montana remained a remote territory. As was so often the case in the American West, it took the discovery of gold to really spark Easterners' interest. By 1862, prospectors were trying their luck in Montana. They were soon followed by farmers and ranchers.
By the mid-1860s, the cattle industry was well-established, and in 1866, the first drive of Texas longhorns to Montana took place. Huge die-offs during the extremely cold winter of 1886-87 marked the end of the great cattle drives and the open range.
Extensive settlement of Montana was hampered by continuing conflicts between new settlers and Native Americans, who fiercely resisted the encroachment on their homeland. These conflicts led to the bloody encounter of June 1876, when Lt. Col. George Custer and his men were wiped out in the battle of Little Bighorn. This Indian victory spurred the U.S. military to send more forces to the region, and Native American resistance was eventually overcome. One of the most dramatic defeats suffered by the Indians, the surrender of the Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph, took place in Montana in 1877.
With the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, the flood of new settlers became unstoppable and Montana joined the Union just six years later, in 1889. Today, tourism, agriculture, wood production and mining are the mainstays of Montana's economy.
Snapshot
Montana's chief attractions are spectacular scenery, Glacier National Park, trout fishing, skiing, camping, hiking, Native American culture, gambling, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, ghost towns, dude ranches, horseback riding, hunting and white-water rafting.
Travelers interested in the great outdoors and the history of the West—or who feel that dramatic high-mountain scenery is reward enough for long drives—will love Montana. Those who prefer big-city attractions may be surprised at the breadth of cultural offerings there and might find the slower pace a refreshing change.
Potpourri
Missoula native Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress. She took office in 1917, before women in some states even had the right to vote.
Located north of Great Falls on the Missouri River, the tiny town of Loma holds the national record for the greatest 24-hour temperature change. On 14-15 January 1972, a Chinook wind caused the temperature to rise from -54 F/-47 C to 49 F/9 C.
Shelby native and respected paleontologist Jack Horner discovered and named the Maiasaura dinosaur in Montana in the 1970s. Horner was in large part responsible for the revised theories of dinosaurs as nurturing, social creatures.
It's true: The town of Joe, Montana, is named for football star Joe Montana. Fans in the tiny town of Ismay had the name officially changed in July 1993 as a tribute to the former NFL quarterback, although residents still call the town Ismay.
Some sheep ranchers in Montana use "guard llamas" to protect their flocks from coyotes. Llamas, it seems, will fight prowling coyotes, making them good guardians for the sheep.
Big Sky Resort was the brainchild of news anchor and native Montanan Chet Huntley. Other Montanans of note are Gary Cooper, Myrna Loy, Evel Knievel, Lester Thurow and Dana Carvey.