蒙大拿州小档案：
人口：约9万
面积：约381，085平方公里，排名第4位
州府：赫勒拿Helena
蒙大拿州的州名，是拉丁文。其意义是“山地”Mountainous region。
1809年开始殖民。1889年11月8日成为美国第41州。以苦根花Bitterroot为州花。本州别名叫做“财富之州”Treasure State或“长空之乡”the Big Sky Country。本州箴言：“金和银”Gold and Silver。
州府是赫勒拿Helena，位于本州西南部。高等学府有12所。其中最著名的是蒙他拿大学，创于1893年，在密苏拉Missoula。本州西北部的落矶山地内有冰和国家公园Glacier National Park，面积四千平方公里。其中有许多山谷冰河及冰蚀谷等地形。
本州特征有二：第一，本州全境都是山地。落矶山地位于本州西部，约占本州面积五分之二。其余约占五分之三的东部是高平原。除西境之山脉外，全部属于密苏里河上游水系之流域，受流水刻蚀与切割，山高谷深，起伏很大。高平原外貌很像山地，但顶部平坦。因为全境是山地，人口又十分稀少。工业不发达，空气清新，流水洁净，未受污染，是美国大陆最清洁之州。第二，每年由本州输出300多万株圣诞树，在五十州内，列第一位。
本州北界加拿大，东邻北达科他州，东南与南达科他州接壤，西及西南两方与爱达荷州毗连，南与怀俄明州为邻。主要作物为春小麦及大麦，羊较多，牛次之。主要矿产为石油、煤及金、银。
Intronduction简介
Before the white settlers arrived，two groups of Indian tribes lived in the region that is now Montana．The Arapaho［（pl．Arapahos）阿拉帕霍人（原住北美北普拉特和阿肯色河，现住怀俄明和俄克拉荷马的一支印第安人部落）］，Assiniboine，Atsina，Blackfeet，Cheyenne［夏安族（人）］，and Crow tribes lived on the plains．The mountains in the west were the home of the Bannack，Flathead（美国印第安部族），Kalispell，Kootenai，and Shoshone［（pl．Shoshone，Shoshones）肖松尼族人（美国西部的一种印第安人）］tribes．Other nearby tribes（such as the Sioux，Mandan，and Nez Perce）hunted in the Montana region．
Much of the region was acquired by the U．S．from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803．The northwestern part was gained by treaty with Great Britain in 1846．At various times，parts of Montana were in territories of Louisiana，Missouri，Nebraska，Dakota，Oregon，Washington and Idaho．
First explored for France is and Louis－Joseph Verendrye in the early 1740s．The American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their expedition across Montana to the Pacific Coast in 1805．They returned in 1806and explored parts of Montana both going and coming．By 1807，Manuel Lisa set up Montana’s first fur－trading post．
In 1841missionaries（传教士）built St．Mary’s Mission，the first attempt at a permanent settlement．In 1847，the American Fur Company built Fort Benton on the Missouri River．This town is now Montana’s oldest continuously populated town．
The U．S．claim to NW Montana，the area between the Rockies and the N Idaho border，was validated（确认，证实）in the Oregon Treaty of 1846with the British．Montana was then still a wilderness（荒野，荒地）of forest and grass，with a few trading posts and some missions．
Cattle raising began in Montana in the mid－1850s，when Richard Grant，a trader，brought the first herd（兽群，牧群）to the area from Oregon．Gold was discovered in Grasshopper Creek in 1862．Thousands of prospectors（探勘者，采矿者）built mining camps throughout Montana as gold strikes were discovered．Some of these include Bannock，Diamond City，and Virginia City．
The mining camps had almost no effective law enforcement（执行，强制）．Finally，the citizens took the law into their own hands．One famous incident involved the two biggest gold camps—Bannack and Virginia City．The settlers learned that their sheriff，Henry Plummer，was actually an outlaw（歹徒，逃犯，丧失公权者）leader．The men of Bannack and Virginia City formed a vigilance（警戒）committee to rid themselves of the outlaws．These vigilantes（义务警员）hanged Plummer in January 1864．These numbers may have represented the dimensionsn（尺寸，尺度）of a grave：3feet wide，by 7feet long，by 77inches deep．Many outlaws were hanged or driven from Montana by the vigilantes．
A large number of early prospectors came from the South，particularly from Confederate（同盟的，联合的）Army units that broke up in the Civil War（1861－1865）．One of the major gold fields was called Confederate［〈美〉干谷峡谷，冲沟（尤指产金地的急流峡谷）］，because three Southerners found the first gold there．
During the boom years，gold dust was the principal money．For example，missionaries did not pass collection plates at church services．They passed a tin cup for gold dust．Chinese laundrymen［洗衣工（人）］even found gold in their wash water after they washed the miners’clothing．
Sidney Edgerton，an Idaho official，saw the need for better government of the wild mining camps．At the time，Montana was part of Idaho Territory．Edgerton wrote to Washington，D．C．，urging the creation of a new territory．Montana became a territory on May 26，1864，and Edgerton served as its first governor．
In 1866，Nelson Story，a cattleman（牧场主人，牧牛者），drove a thousand longhorn（长角牛）cattle from Texas to Montana．Story’s herd started the Montana cattle industry in earnest．
The coming of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883opened the way to the eastern markets and caused even more growth．But disaster struck the cattle industry in the bitterly cold winter of 1886－1887．Cattle died by the thousands in the howling（嚎叫）blizzards（大风雪）and frigid（寒冷的）temperatures．Ranching continued after this，but on a smaller，more careful，basis．
In 1876，the U．S．Army arrived at the Little Bighorn River to place all Native Americans on reservations（保留，预约）．The last serious Indian fighting in Montana started when the U．S．government tried to move the Nez Perce Indians from their lands in Oregon．Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce led his tribe toward Canada through Montana．The Indians and U．S．troops fought several battles in Idaho，and then a two－day battle at the Big Hole in southwestern Montana．Troops under Colonel Nelson A．Miles captured Chief Joseph’s Indians about 40miles（64km）from the Canadian boundary（边界，分界线）in October 1877．
Between 1880and 1890，the population of Montana grew from about 39，000to nearly 143，000．The people of Montana first asked for statehood（州的状态或地位）in 1884，but they had to wait five years．Finally，Montana was admitted as the 41st state on November 8，1889．Joseph K．Toole of Helena became the first state governor．
Much of Montana’s growth during the 1880s and 1890s came because of the mines at Butte．The earliest mines produced gold．Then silver was discovered in the rock ledges of the Butte Hill．Later，miners found rich veins of copper．Miners came to Butte from Ireland，England and other areas of Europe．Smelters were built，and more men were hired to operate them．The Butte Hill became known as “the Richest Hill on Earth”．