Honoring The States: The 41st State Admitted To The USA -Montana...

The 41st state admitted to the US was Montana, on November 8th, 1889. The name "Montana" is Spanish for "mountain". It is the only state with a "triple divide", which is the name for a place where water flows from three different sources - the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Hudson Bay. Montana is the 4th largest state in the US. The major industries in the state are lumber, tourism, and mining. Even though there are more cows than people, Montana reminds us that the largest Elk herd migration, and the largest grizzly bear population of the lower 48 states also happens there. The coldest temperature ever recorded (-70 degrees fahrenheit), and the largest snowflake, were all recorded in Montana. There is an abundance of natural minerals and other resources in the state like coal, timber, natural gas, gold, silver, and copper, with the gold rush beginning in 1862. Virginia City is a gold mining town that was preserved from the 1800's to still look the way it did back in the day. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first anglo-saxon explorer group to cross Montana. The capitol of Montana is Helena, the state bird is the Western Meadowlark, the state flower is the Bitterroot, and the state tree is the Ponderosa Pine.

The first Montanans first settled as hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago. They hunted bison, mammoths, and mastodons. Some of the major tribes that lived in the state were the Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Crow, Assiniboin, Atsina, Pend d'Oreille, Kootenai, Kalispell, Gros Ventres, Salish, and the Flathead, among others. It wasn't until 1804-1806, when the Lewis and Clark Expedition invited white explorers into the state, that settlers began to arrive to Montana. Trappers introduced a new economy system to the Native Americans, but they also brought diseases, alcohol, and bad habits. Gold was discovered in the 1860's, which brought in more people and demand for land, and Montana became a territory in 1864 from different parts of Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Dakota, and Idaho. This invited many prospectors to the area, until the gold ran out. As like other areas, the more people, the more fighting. Native Americans fought for their land, and in 1876, the Battle of Little Bighorn was won by Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. The US Army soon got involved, and overpowered the Indigenous. Cattle ranches started growing abundantly in the 1860-1870's. The railroads and mining work grew in the 1880's. In 1889, the Enabling Act allowed Montana to become a state, and on November 8th, President Benjamin Harrison admitted Montana as a state. Today, about 6.5% of the state's population has Native American genes. Tribal languages are still spoken, and there are rituals and sacred music practiced there to this day. You can visit museums and reservations to experience Native American culture and traditions.