History of Montana

Native American cultures

Archaeological evidence shows a human presence in Montana beginning about 7,000 years ago. Plains Indians began to arrive from the east in the 17th century, drawn westward by abundant migratory wildlife. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Crow occupied the south-central portion of present-day Montana, the Cheyenne the southeastern corner, the Assiniboin and Atsina (Gros Ventres of the Prairie) the northeastern corner, the Blackfoot the central and north-central area, and the Kutenai the northwestern corner. The Pend d’Oreille had a territory around Flathead Lake, the Kalispell were in the mountains west of there, and the Flathead occupied the Clark Fork and Bitterroot valleys. The southwestern corner was disputed territory. After the westward expansion of the United States, the Flathead were forcibly moved to their present reservation in the Flathead valley. Most of the other tribes are now living on reservations within their respective territories.

U.S. exploration and settlement

The United States acquired territory including Montana through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The first non-Native American explorers known to have set foot in Montana were the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06). Fur trappers and traders followed, setting up forts to trade with the Native Americans. The only early trading post to survive as a present-day town is Fort Benton, which was established in 1846 and became an important port on the Missouri River. Roman Catholic missionaries followed the fur traders and in 1841 established Saint Mary’s Mission near present-day Stevensville, believed to be the first permanent settlement in Montana. Trailblazers carved the northern Overland Route to Montana from the east, the Bozeman Trail from the southeast, and Mullan Road westward from Fort Benton, the head of navigation for steamboats on the Missouri.

Gold prospectors flocked in after rich placer deposits were discovered in the early 1860s. Eager to secure the area and its mineral wealth for the union, the federal government established Montana Territory in 1864 with Bannack, on Grasshopper Creek, as its first capital, and Virginia City, in Alder Gulch, as its second. As pressure from U.S. settlers increased, the Native Americans fought to protect their hunting grounds. The Dakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne won their last major victory in June 1876, against U.S. Cavalry led by Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. A band of Nez Percé under Chief Joseph won a battle in the Big Hole Basin the following year and fled toward Canada, only to be met and defeated by U.S. troops a few miles south of the international boundary.

Statehood and beyond

Montana became a state on Nov. 8, 1889, with Helena as the capital. Butte began as a gold camp. Hard-rock mining had begun in the 1880s, but shaft mining commenced when vast deposits of copper were discovered there. Butte subsequently became known as the “Richest Hill on Earth,” and the world’s largest smelter was built at nearby Anaconda. The so-called “War of the Copper Kings” was won by Marcus Daly, whose Anaconda Company became one of the largest mining conglomerates in the world. The company smashed the mining unions, influenced the state legislature, acquired almost all of Montana’s daily newspapers, and virtually controlled the state for three-fourths of a century.

Cattle and sheep grazing in Great Plains Montana started in the 1860s, when herds were driven overland from Texas. The vast grasslands seemed ideal for cattle, but a severe winter in 1886–87 virtually wiped out the herds. Beginning about 1900, homesteaders began pouring into the plains country to bust the sod and grow grain on semiarid, largely nonirrigated land. After a few years of bumper crops and high prices, a series of dry years brought financial disaster and mass exodus.

Petroleum and natural gas production began in Great Plains Montana in 1915, expanded greatly in the 1950s, and peaked in the 1960s. Coal mining, which had begun in the days of coal stoves and steam locomotives, increased dramatically in the 1970s but declined in economic importance over the next two decades. In the early 21st century, rising petroleum prices sparked renewed interest in the exploitation of Montana’s vast coal reserves.

The closing of the copper mines at Butte, the smelter in Anaconda, and the copper refinery at Great Falls in the early 1980s marked the end of the copper century and a turning point in Montana’s history. The state no longer relies so heavily on the primary economic sector; more emphasis has been placed on tourism and on new and innovative businesses that provide jobs without causing deterioration of the state’s magnificent mountains, crystal waters, and wide-open spaces. In the 1990s the environment, more than opportunities provided by extractive industries, began to draw newcomers to the state in large numbers, notably retirees from both the east and the west coast. That trend continued into the 21st century, though at a markedly slower pace than in the preceding decades.