Why is montana important

Their ancestors called the region the "Land of Shining Mountains" because the sun shines on its high, snow-capped mountains. The famous battle is known as "Custar's Last Stand" and was probably the biggest force of Indian warriors to gather in Western history. Montana's name comes from the Latin or Spanish word for mountainous. The state is sometimes called "The Big Sky Country.

The abbreviation for Montana is MT. It is the largest Rocky Mountain state and the fourth largest state in the country; only Alaska, Texas, and California are bigger. However, Montana is the third least densely populated state in the country; only Wyoming and Alaska have fewer residents per square mile. Montana's land runs from the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide in the western part of the state to rolling plains in the eastern part of the state.

Two-thirds of Montana is in the Great Plains. The state's beautiful landscape includes forests, prairies, highlands, and valleys. Montana is a leading state in gold, copper, lead, zinc, platinum, and palladium mining, and has the largest coal reserves in the country. Because of the state's great abundance of minerals, especially gold and silver, it is known as the "Treasure State" and the "Bonanza State.

Mining camps were established very quickly. Wheat farming was popular until an extended drought, and a drop in market prices after World War I, ruined many farmers. The homestead "bust" forced many farmers to abandon Montana.

Montana's post-World War I depression extended through the s and right into the Great Depression of the s. Then President Franklin D. These "alphabet agencies" mark the first real dependence of the state on federal spending in the 20th century — a reliance that would build through the century. The war brought additional federal monies to the state, but drew young people into the service and into wartime industries on the West Coast. The resultant wartime dislocation changed Montana forever. Post-war or "modern" Montana has been characterized by a slow shift from an economy that relies on the extraction of natural resources to one that is service-based.

Such traditional industries as copper, petroleum, coal, and timber have suffered wild market fluctuations and unstable employment patterns. Agriculture — while dependent on weather, a declining workforce, and international markets — has remained Montana's primary industry throughout the era. After tourism supplanted mining as the state's second-largest industry.

This era also saw the important shift in the state's transportation system from railroads to cars, trucks, and highways. Montana post-war politics has been keyed by some remarkable national politicians: James E.

Montanans, more conservative on the state level, frequently have split their legislative houses and sought only moderate change. Dillon, a sleepy college town and the human cornerstone of the area, came to being in , as a northern rail terminus for Montana's first railroad - the Utah and Northern rail line heading to Butte. Though its length is short in comparison to other major Montana rivers, the landscape the Bitterroot River flows through is long on beauty and historical significance.

Some of Montana's most rugged summits, ranging from 9, - 10, feet, including 10,foot Trapper Peak, begin their climb to the sky here. Towering jagged pinnacles, precipitous walls, and a series of long U-shaped glacial carved canyons make up the western side of the Bitterroot's landscape. Long before Lewis and Clark came through the valley, Native Americans used it as a thoroughfare and a place to hunt.

The Salish called the northern part of the river "Place of the Bitterroot," after the pink flowering plant they sought for its bitter tasting roots. A favorite source of food for the native people, Lewis brought samples back to St.

Louis, introducing this new species to the world. The Bitterroot Valley is one of the fastest growing regions in the state. Fighting to hold its grace amid the sprawl of human invasion, the river passes by groves of cottonwoods, farms and pasture lands and represents the plant that became the Montana state flower in , the beautiful bitterroot.