Montana Facts

• Montana is nicknamed the Treasure State.
   
• The state's motto Oro y Plata means gold and silver.
   
• The bitterroot is the official state flower.
   
• The western meadowlark is the official state bird.
   
• The state's official animal is the grizzly bear. 
   
• Montana's name comes from the Spanish word mountain.
   
• The density of the state is six people per square mile. 
   
• The smallest incorporated city in the state is Ismay, population 26. (2000 est.)
   
• The highest point in the state is Granite Peak at 12,799 feet.
   
• The lowest point in the state is where the Kootenai River exits the state in northwest Montana at 1,820 feet.
   
• Competing with the D River in Lincoln City, Oregon for the title of the world's shortest river, the Roe River flows near Great Falls. Both rivers lengths vary from 58 feet to 200 feet. The source for this small river is Giant Springs, the largest freshwater spring in the United States.
   
• 46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile. 
   
• The most visited place in Montana is Glacier National Park, known as the crown jewel of the continent. It lies along Montana's northern border and adjoins Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, forming the world's first International Peace Park.
   
• Flathead Lake in northwest Montana contains over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. It is considered the largest natural freshwater lake in the west. 
   
• Montana is home to seven Indian reservations. 
   
• The first inhabitants of Montana were the Plains Indians. 

Montana Trivia

• The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England.
   
• The first luge run in North America was built at Lolo Hot Springs on Lolo Pass in 1965. 
   
• In 1888 Helena had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.
   
• The Yaak community is the most northwestern settlement in the state. 
  
• Montana holds the world record for the greatest termerature change in 24-hrs, 103 degrees in Loma!
   
• Dressing for the weather? Montana boast an impress extreme range in temperature of 187 degrees between the hottest and coldest temperature ever recorded.
   
• The coldest temperature recorded in Montana was -70 degrees below zero at Rogers Pass, just north of Helena on January 20, 1954. This is also the national record for the lower 48-states.
   
• The warmest temperature recorded in Montana was 117 degrees above zero. This occured twice, once in Glendive on July 20, 1893 and once at Medicine Lake, on July 5, 1937.
    
• Virginia City was founded in 1863 and is considered to be the most complete original town of its kind in the United States. 
   
• Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay. This phenomenon occurs at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park.
   
• Miles City is known as the Cowboy Capitol. 
   
• Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation.
   
• The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman gained fame through the work of its chief paleontologist, Jack Horner. Horner was the prototype for the character Dr. Alan Grant in the best selling novel/movie, "Jurassic Park."
   
• Montana's rivers and streams provide water for three oceans and three of the North American continent's major river basins.
   
• Hill County has the largest county park in the United States. Beaver Creek Park measures 10 miles long and 1 mile wide.
   
• The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park is considered one of the most scenic drives in America.
   
• Glacier National Park has 250 lakes within its boundaries.

Montana Animal Facts 

• Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the nation. 
   
• The state boasts the largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower United States. 
   
• At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls more golden eagles have been seen in a single day than anywhere else in the country. 
   
• North of Missoula is the largest population of nesting common loons in the western United States. 
   
• The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer. 
   
• The Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area contains as many as 300,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans during migration. 
   
• At Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge it is possible to see up to 1,700 nesting pelicans.
   
• No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana. 
   
• The moose, now numbering over 8,000 in Montana, was thought to be extinct in the Rockies south of Canada in the 1900s. 
   
• Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states. 
   
• Near the Pines Recreation Area as many as 100 sage grouse perform their extraordinary spring mating rituals. 
   
• At Egg Mountain near Choteau dinosaur eggs have been discovered supporting the theory some dinosaurs were more like mammals and birds than like reptiles.
   
• Buffalo in the wild can still be viewed at the National Bison Range in Moiese, south of Flathead Lake and west of the Mission Mountains. 
   
• Every spring nearly 10,000 white pelicans with a wingspan of nine feet migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to Medicine Lake in northeastern Montana. 
   
• In Montana the elk, deer and antelope populations outnumber the humans.