Billings Senior High School - Kyote Yearbook (Billings, MT)

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Montana. ? . . MONTA N A, commonly known as the “Treas- ure State was from 1682 to 1762 in the possession of France. In 17b2 to 1800 it was owned by Spain and again in 1800 to 1803 it was acquired by the United States as a part of the Lou- isiana Purchase. In 1864 the territory of Montana was created, and in 1880 without any changes in territorial boundaries it was admitted to the union. The Veren- dlryts, Freni h explorer» and fur traders from Canada, were the first white men to set foot on Montana. They came in 1743 within sight of the Big Horn mountains in what is now southeastern Montana. Captains Lewis and Clark, sent out by the government to make a recon- naissance of the northwest, were the next white men to visit Montana. 'I hey crossed the state from east to west in 1805, retracting their way from the Pacific the following year. A period of fur trading activities by adventurous whites followed. Gold discoveries brought the first great influx of whites in 1861, since which time the state has produced approximately $2,500,000,000 in mineral wealth. For many years after the first invasion by the white men the country remained in control of the Indians, while the vast herds of buffalo roamed the prairies, and the mountainous sections were alive with bear, elk. and other wild game. Agriculture and stock raising, which had its real reception with the coming of the gold seekers, grad- ually gained a foothold, and for many years Montana was one of the great range states. Wheat, which was regarded with indifference during the state’s early develop- ment, became an important product during the homesteading period of the first decade d the twentieth century. Now the state stands third in production. Fifty years ago Montana’s population aggre- gated 20,000. Today it is approximately 570.000, still less than one-half percent of the nation’s total, while the state’s area is 146.097 square miles, about five percent of th. land area of the entire country. In 1883 the first railroad line was completed across the state by the North- ern Pacific railway. Now the state is traversed by three great transcontinental rail- . the State of Opportunity Billings Air Transport Field

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South Entrance

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roads, which, with the other systems in the state are op- erating 5,422 miles of lines. Montana, which de- rived the name from the Spanish word “mountain- ous,” contains 94,078.080 acres. About one-third of this is mountain country with the remainder about Rutwell-Miller Milling Company divided equally between farming and grazing land. The state has in it the source of two of the nation’s greatest rivers, the Missouri and the Columbia. The annual flow of water out of the state is sufficient to flood all of the New England states, together with New York, New Jer- sey, Delaware and Maryland to a depth of six inches. The fall of the rivers within the state, the Missouri at 2,000 feet and the Columbia at 1,000 feet, is equal to 7.32 percent of the nation’s water power resources. Of this, 367,000 horsepower has been developed and 2,117,000 horsepower remains for future development. Within the state 37,000 acres of land are irrigated by electrically driven pumps and about 3,000.000 acres are irrigated by gravity canals. Surveys show that 6.000,000 acres are susceptible of irri- gation. The greatest precipitation of rainfall for any one year was 20.6 inches in 1927 and the lightest 11.04 in 1904. The state has five hours of sunshine in the growing season to every four hours of sunshine in the Mississippi valley states. Montana's elevation is less than those of the other Rocky Mountain states. Agriculture experienced its inception 83 years ago when at a Jesuit mission in the Bitter Root valley the earliest missionary, the Rev. Fr. P. J. Smet, seeded the first parcel of ground for the Indians. However, development of agriculture was slow and it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that it found itself. In the last 37 years the state has produced an abundance of wheat, potatoes, tame hay and corn. Montana has the largest wheat farm in the world. There are four beet sugar factories operating in the state. In good seasons Montana’s apple crop has reached 800 car loads. The state has been a consist- ent winner at the International Livestock and Grain and Hay Show at Chicago. Among the northwest states Montana ranks third in pork production. The state pro- duces one-tenth of the wool of the country’, standing second among all the states in production. Immense deposits of marble recently opened in Montana are producing a beautiful type of stone theretofore quarried only in Egypt. Montana possesses moun- tains of marble, granite and other kinds of building stone. This state has the largest copper rod and wire mill in the world, supplied entirely by Montana-mined materials. Of the world’s coal supply Montana is credited with eight percent. Within the state is located the world’s lowest cost coal mine, a strip mine at Colstrip in Rosebud county. One-half of the entire national output of precious stones is produced in Montana. The state contains more than 20,- 000,000 acres of forest land, of which more than 8,000,000 acres bear timber of a com- mercial grade. After having stated these facts proving that Montana is one of the most progressive states in the union, it can not be denied that it is indeed a land of unsurpassed Threshing Wheat on Campbell's Dry Farming Ranch resources and opportunities.