Montana
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Where is Montana located in the United States?
Montana is a constituent state of the United States, located in the northern part of the country. It borders the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and Idaho to the west.
Montana's landscape is divided into two main regions: the Rocky Mountains in the western two-fifths and the Great Plains in the eastern three-fifths. The state's population is small, sparse, and unevenly distributed, with slightly more than half residing in urban areas.
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What is Montana known for geographically?
Montana's geography is defined by the Rocky Mountains in the western two-fifths of the state and the Great Plains in the eastern three-fifths. This contrast is a prominent geographic feature, with high mountains, deep valleys, and forests in the west, versus vast rangeland and grain fields in the east.
The state is unique as waters flow to Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. The Continental Divide runs through Montana, separating the eastward and westward flowing drainage. The state has varied climates based on elevation, from semiarid plains to cooler, wetter mountainous zones. Montana's lowest elevation is 1,820 feet (555 meters) above sea level, while its highest is Granite Peak at 12,799 feet (3,901 meters).
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What is the climate like in Montana?
Montana's climate varies significantly between its regions. The eastern Great Plains experience a semiarid climate, marked by hot summers and cold winters, with average precipitation around 13 inches (330 mm). This area is prone to droughts and heavy rainfall, with light snowfall and frequent freezing temperatures. The chinook, a warm winter wind, offers periodic relief from the cold, where January temperatures average in the upper 10s F (about −8 °C).
In contrast, the climate in Rocky Mountain Montana differs based on elevation. The dry valley bottoms share similarities with eastern Montana, while higher elevations experience cooler, wetter, and snowier conditions.
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What kinds of wildlife can be found in Montana?
Montana's diverse geography, from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains, sustains a wide array of wildlife. The mountains are home to iconic species like grizzly bears, Rocky Mountain goats, bighorn sheep, moose, and reintroduced gray wolves.
Common species such as American elk, mule deer, black bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and forest grouse also inhabit these areas.
The grasslands of Great Plains Montana are home to pronghorn, mule deer, coyotes, badgers, and plains grouse. Near waterways, you can find white-tailed deer, beavers, muskrats, mink, bald eagles, ring-necked pheasant, ducks, geese, and swans. The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge on Fort Peck Lake is a protected area for endangered species.
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What are some important industries in Montana?
Montana's economy is dominated by its primary sector and services. Primary sector industries include agriculture, forestry, mining, and energy production. Montana produces beef cattle, sheep, grain, sugar beets, potatoes, and fruit. The manufacturing of plywood, pulp, and paper products are included in the forestry industry. Mining contributes minerals such as gold, copper, and talc. The state extracts coal, petroleum, and natural gas for energy production.
The service sector employs about a third of Montana's workforce. Tourism is a significant component of the economy, as is outdoor recreation and some high-technology industries.
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How has Montana's history shaped its culture and population today?
Montana's history has significantly shaped its culture and population. Originally inhabited by various Native American tribes such as the Crow, Cheyenne, and Blackfoot, the state's demographics shifted with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and subsequent U.S. expansion.
The arrival of fur trappers, traders, and missionaries in the early 19th century marked the beginning of non-Native American settlement, followed by an influx of gold prospectors in the 1860s. This led to conflicts with Native Americans, who fought to protect their hunting grounds, such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Today, Montana's population reflects its diverse heritage, with a significant Native American presence and a blend of European ancestries. The state's economy, once dominated by mining and agriculture, is now seeing growth in tourism and high-technology industries, attracting newcomers drawn to its outdoor recreation and scenic landscapes.
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News •
Montana, constituent state of the United States of America. Only three states—Alaska, Texas, and California—have an area larger than Montana’s, and only two states—Alaska and Wyoming—have a lower population density. Montana borders the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to the north and the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and Idaho to the west. Although its name is derived from the Spanish montaña (“mountain” or “mountainous region”), Montana has an average elevation of only 3,400 feet (1,040 meters), the lowest among the Mountain states. The Rocky Mountains sweep down from British Columbia, trending northwest-southeast into western Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. The eastern portion of the state, however, is a gently rolling landscape, with millions of grazing cattle and sheep, and with only scattered evidence of human habitation. It forms a part of the northern Great Plains, shared with Alberta, Saskatchewan, North and South Dakota, and northeastern Wyoming. Helena is the capital.
The residents of Montana are relatively far from markets for their products, as well as from the country’s manufacturing and supply centers. The state is strongly oriented toward the outdoors and toward activities such as summer and winter sports, hunting, and fishing. Long-distance trips are frequent occasions for socializing and entertainment or cures for prairie- or mountain-born restlessness.
- Capital:
- Helena
- Population1:
- (2020) 1,084,225; (2025 est.) 1,144,694
- Governor:
- Greg Gianforte (Republican)
- Date Of Admission:
- November 8, 1889
- U.S. Senators:
- Steve Daines (Republican)
- Tim Sheehy (Republican)
- State Nickname:
- Treasure State
- Big Sky Country
- State Motto:
- "Oro y Plata (Gold and Silver)"
- State Bird:
- western meadowlark
- State Flower:
- bitterroot
- State Song:
- “Montana”
- Seats In U.S. House Of Representatives:
- 2 (of 435)
- Time Zone:
- Mountain (GMT − 7 hours)
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 380,832
In spite of its northern location, Montana is very much a Western state. The main street of Helena is Last Chance Gulch, the city’s original name and a reminder of the prospectors who invaded the surrounding hills in the 1860s to pan for gold. By 1889, when Montana became the 41st state of the union, the cattle drive was an institution, and the state had begun to emerge as one of the country’s leading copper-mining centers. Montana is called the Treasure State because of its immense mineral wealth. Area 147,040 square miles (380,832 square km). Population (2020) 1,084,225; (2025 est.) 1,144,694.
Land
The western two-fifths of Montana falls within the Rocky Mountains, and the eastern three-fifths lies upon the Great Plains. Rocky Mountain Montana is a land of high mountains, deep valleys, green forests, and treeless crest lines, whereas Great Plains Montana is a vast horizontal sweep of yellow rangeland, golden grain fields, and brown fallow strips. This contrast between mountain and plain is among the most powerful geographic features of the state.
Relief
In Rocky Mountain Montana the mountain ranges are aligned generally from north-northwest to south-southeast. They are made up of ancient hard rocks that were compressed, folded, faulted, and otherwise contorted by the mountain-building forces that created the Rockies, beginning about 100 million years ago.
During the last ice age, some 11,500 years ago, glaciers carved the mountain crest lines and high valleys from rounded, convex terrain into sharp, rugged, concave topography and, when they melted, left the loose earth material that they had gouged out of the mountains as glacial deposits in the valley bottoms. The glaciers in Montana today are very small compared with the great tongues of ice of the past. The bottoms of the valleys between the mountain ranges consist mainly of alluvial floodplains and terraces; of benchlands and foothills carved on young, soft rocks; and of plains, terraces, and foothills made up of glacial deposits.
There is a contrast within Rocky Mountain Montana between mountains with narrow valleys and those with broad valleys. In the narrow-valley regions, which are the most rugged and spectacular of the state, the valley floors are humid and forested. There are two narrow-valley regions. One is northwestern Montana, which includes Glacier National Park with most of Montana’s glaciers. The other lies in south-central Montana at the northern end of Yellowstone National Park; this area contains the highest point in Montana, Granite Peak, which has an elevation of 12,799 feet (3,901 meters). These two narrow-valley regions are separated by a broad-valley area in west-central and southwestern Montana. There the valley bottoms are wide, dry, and grassy, permitting sweeping panoramic views of the mountain ranges.
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Most of Great Plains Montana is rather rough land. The country south of the Yellowstone River is mainly scattered hills. Surrounding a long segment of the Missouri River in the north-central part of the state are the Missouri River Breaks, which make up a scenic area of rugged uplands that is part of Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Genuine plains are found in the “Golden Triangle” north of Great Falls and plateaus elsewhere. Some of the hills, breaks, and valley bluffs form rugged badlands such as those seen at Makoshika State Park, near Glendive. The valleys of the major rivers flowing from the Rocky Mountains across eastern Montana are deeply incised. Scattered upon the plains and plateau surfaces are eight small mountain masses called Rocky Mountain outliers, which are like islands of the Rockies set out upon the plains.
The rocks underlying Great Plains Montana, except for the mountain outliers, are young, soft, and more or less horizontal. Roughly north of the Missouri River the plains rocks are covered by glacial deposits left by the continental ice cap, which occupied the area at the same time that alpine glaciers were sculpting the mountains to the west. The bottoms of the incised valleys are made up of alluvial floodplains, terraces, and soft-rock benchlands.
Drainage
Montana is the only state in the union from which waters flow to Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. The northwestern section of the state lies west of the Continental Divide and is drained to the Columbia River—and thus ultimately to the Pacific—by the Kootenai River and by the Clark Fork and its major tributary, the Flathead River. The Flathead flows into and then out of Flathead Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. The Kootenai flows out of Montana at the lowest elevation in the state, 1,820 feet (555 meters) above sea level. East of the Continental Divide, Montana is drained by the Missouri River and its principal tributary, the Yellowstone. Rising in southwest Montana, where it is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, the Missouri is a tributary of the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico and thus is part of the Atlantic Ocean drainage system. A small portion of Montana on the eastern slope of Glacier National Park drains ultimately to Hudson Bay.