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MONTANA 19U 



greater area than all the New England states, New York, New Jersey, 

 Delaware and Maryland added together; and there are counties in Montana 

 larger than some of the populous states of the Union. 



For many years the greater part of this great empire lay neglected and 

 unknown. Montana of tlie old days was the land of gold and silver and 

 copper — and it is, indeed, yet ; later it became the land of beef and mutton — 

 and it is yet; but beyond and away from the mountain ranges 

 It Is a Story which had given the State its first return of wealth and had 

 of Progress, sheltered its sparse population, there lay a land of wheat and 

 oats and flax and harlev and corn of which the old-timer li^'ed 

 in complacent ignorance. It is only in recent 3'ears that the biggest dis- 



A Montana Ranch Scene 



covery has been mlade in Montana, the discovery that its soil was fertile 

 and that its climatic conditions were such as to make it a State of homes 

 and farm's. The result of this discovery has been that the tide of immigra- 

 tion, ever strea;ming westward, but passing through this State with not a 

 thought of the opportunity ignored, has been turned Montana-wTard, and 

 this State is now undergoing the greatest development ever witnessed in 

 even the virile and enthusiastic West. Montana is today forging forward 

 at a rate which is staggering to the imiagination. It is the scene of the last 

 great land rush which is to be witnessed on the American continent — not a 



— The mineral wealth of Montana has scarcely been touched. 



