MONTANA 



3910 



MONT BLANC 



bought from France in 1803 by the Louisiana 

 Purchase. The famous expedition of Lewis 

 and Clark to the Pacific coast crossed this re- 

 gion in 1804 and 1805. The first permanent 

 settlement was established at Fort Benton in 

 1846 by the American Fur Company. The real 

 beginning of development was in 1861, when 

 gold was discovered in the mountains. People 

 flocked to these regions, and mining settlements 

 rapidly appeared. In 1863 gold was discovered 

 at Fairweather Gulch, near Alder Creek, and 

 within a year the town of Virginia City, which 

 was established near that spot, numbered 4,000 

 inhabitants. 



Montana at first had been included in the 

 Territory of Idaho, formed in 1863; in 1864 it 

 was established as a separate territory. In 1874 

 the capital was removed from Virginia City to 

 Helena. In 1876 occurred the disastrous fight 

 on the Little Big Horn River between General 

 Custer and the Sioux Indians under Sitting 

 Bull. The rich copper mines around Butte were 

 soon discovered, and from 1880 the mining of 

 copper and silver became very important; in 

 fact, for a long time afterwards the whole po- 

 litical and economic development of Montana 

 was influenced by its copper mines. 



In 1883 the Northern Pacific Railway was 

 completed, and the development of the terri- 

 tory advanced very rapidly. 



Admission as a State. In 1884 n constitu- 

 tional convention framed a constitution that 

 was ratified by the people, and application was 

 made to Congress for its admission as a state. 

 It was not until 1889, however, that Congress 

 passed the. enabling act for its admission, and 

 on November 8, 1889, Montana became the 

 forty-first state of the Union. From that time 

 the state has advanced rapidly, both economi- 

 cally and politically. Labor troubles have been 

 frequent since 1907, when a strike of long dura- 

 tion took place in Butte and in other cities. 

 The Socialists have gained many adherents, and 

 in 1911 they succeeded in electing their candi- 

 date as mayor in Butte. The people in 1916 

 voted for statewide prohibition, to go into ef- 

 fect January 1, 1919. 



In national politics Montana was Republican 

 in 1892; Democratic and Populist in 1896 and 

 1900; Republican again in 1904 and 1908. 

 Woodrow Wilson carried the state for the 

 Democrats by a small majority in 1912, and by 

 34,000 plurality in 1916. J.D.D. 



Consult Montana, issued by the state depart- 

 ment of agriculture ; Linderman's Calendar of 

 Historic Events in the History of Montana. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes contain much information that will 

 be of interest in connection with a study of Mon- 

 tana: 



CITIES 



Anaconda Great Falls 



Billings Helena 



Bozeman Missoula 

 Butte 



LEADING PRODUCTS 



Apple Oats 



Copper Sapphire 



Gold Sheep 



Hay Silver 



Horse Wheat 



Lumber Wool 



Butte 

 Missouri River 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 



Rocky Mountains 

 Yellowstone River 



RESERVATIONS 



Glacier National Yellowstone National 



Park Park 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Dry Farming 

 Irrigation 



Lewis and Clark Expe- 

 dition 



MONTANA, UNIVERSITY OF, a coeducational 

 institution, organized at Missoula in 1895. 

 Three years previous to its opening Congress 

 endowed the university with a public-land grant 

 of seventy-two sections. The annual income 

 from land unsold is about $30,000, supple- 

 mented by legislative appropriation, making 

 the net annual income $175,000. The uni- 

 versity buildings, which are on a campus of 

 forty acres, are valued at $200,000. Courses 

 are offered in science, literature and arts, law, 

 pharmacy, forestry, journalism, music, domes- 

 tic science and commerce and accounting; and 

 there are also maintained a school of education, 

 a university extension department, correspond- 

 ence courses, a bureau of public information, a 

 summer school and a biological station. Tui- 

 tion is free to students residing in Montana. 

 The university is equipped with a library of 

 35,500 volumes; it has a faculty of over sixty 

 members and a student enrolment in 1915-1916 

 of 1,028. J.D.D. 



MONT BLANC, mawN blahN' , meaning 

 white mountain, is the highest mountain of 

 Europe, the most famous peak on the Conti- 

 nent, and one of the most notable in the 

 world. It is situated in the Pennine Alps, the 

 loftiest and most important range of the Alpine 

 system. The mountain lies southwest of Allee 

 Blanche and northeast of the beautiful vale of 

 Chamouni, in the province of Haute Savoie, 

 France, near the frontiers of Italy and Switzer- 

 land. The huge mountain mass, composed 



