Montana Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for Montana trivia? Try our list Montana little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The state now has what is billed as the only contemporary Jewish mikvah in the region. Built at the Bozeman (pop. 27,509) home of Rabbi Chaim Bruk and his wife, Chavie, a mikvah is a ritual bath that Jewish women use for spiritual purification. The bath, inside a separate building in the Bruks' backyard, also serves Jews from Idaho, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota.

first appeared: 11/1/2009

The Blackfeet Tribe of Montana offers a language immersion school called Nizipuhwahsin that serves children in kindergarten through eighth grades. The Piegan Institute in Browning (pop. 1,065) operates the school to preserve the Blackfeet language.

first appeared: 10/18/2009

Frontier photographer Edward S. Curtis was inspired in about 1900 to undertake The North American Indian, his 20-volume work, after witnessing and photographing a sun dance ceremony on the Piegan Reservation in northwest Montana, near Browning (pop. 1,065).

The "Bubba Burger" from The Cutting Board restaurant in Eureka (pop. 1,017) was a winning entry in this year's Ultimate Hometown Grill Off, sponsored by ABC's Live! With Regis and Kelly. James Monroe's recipe is a mesquite-grilled hamburger patty topped with Cajun sausage, jumbo shrimp, chipotle sauce and cheddar cheese. Monroe created it one night with leftovers.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

An annual reminder of Butte's (pop. 33,892) Chinese heritage is its Chinese New Year celebration, billed as "the shortest, loudest Chinese New Year parade in the world." A highlight is the Chinese ceremonial dragon, a gift in 1998 from the Republic of China.

The only Montana thoroughbred to win the Kentucky Derby was Spokane, who accomplished the feat in 1889. The purebred horse was stabled in the 1880s in a Montana landmark, a round, three-story barn built near Twin Bridges (pop. 400).

first appeared: 9/20/2009

Eureka (pop. 1,017) and the surrounding Tobacco Valley are known as the state's "Banana Belt" because of the area's mild weather. High temperatures in the summer average in the 80s.

first appeared: 9/6/2009

Jessey Perry, 12, of Lewistown (pop. 5,813), hooked the state's record channel catfish in May. Jessey caught the 37.6-inch, 30.12-pound fish in the Slippery Ann area of the Missouri River.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

Sharpshooter Ed McGivern (1874-1957) was said to be the "the world's fastest gun," having set several shooting records. Last year, his hometown of Lewistown (pop. 5,813) dedicated a memorial and park in his honor. Among feats attributed to McGivern was the ability, at 15 feet, to fire five shots in less than a half second into a target smaller than a half dollar.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

Competitive kayakers Seth Warren, of Missoula (pop. 57,053), and Tyler Bradt, of Stevensville (pop. 1,553), drove from Alaska to the tip of South America in a vegetable oil-fueled fire truck they named Baby. They chronicled their 21,000-mile adventure in the 2007 film Oil + Water, which won awards for best picture at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival, best environmental film at the Taos Mountain Film Festival, and people's choice at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—Tim Seery, 16, a student and aspiring artist at C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls (pop. 56,690), was the successful bidder in March for a painting by the late Western artist C.M. Russell. Seery paid $3,500, his life savings from odd jobs, for the unsigned work, which is a mixed-media painting of a matador.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—Blind, injured or otherwise handicapped dogs, cats and horses find a loving home at Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Ovando (pop. 71). The 160-acre sanctuary, founded in 2000 by Steve Smith and Alayne Marker, tends to 70 to 80 disabled animals.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—The Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture in Huntley (pop. 411) tells the story of the homesteaders in the Huntley Project, an irrigation district established by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and opened to homesteaders in 1907. On the museum grounds, visitors can see a small-town Main Street, a restored homestead cabin, and a 1920s farm, and can try their hand at farm chores. The district includes the towns of Huntley, Worden (pop. 506), Ballantine (pop. 346) and Pompey's Pillar.

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Joslyn Tinkle, the senior standout for the Missoula (pop. 57,053) Big Sky girls' basketball team, was named to the 2009 McDonald's Girls' Basketball All-American team. She is the first Montanan selected to the McDonald's team.

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—Bannack's Methodist Church, built in 1877, brought religion to the state's first gold camp. Townsfolk built the church under the leadership of circuit-riding preacher William Van Orsdel, fondly referred to as "Brother Van." The preserved church is in Bannack State Park, southwest of Dillon (pop. 3,752).

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—Farmers and ranchers have a heyday each September with the "What the Hay" hay-bale art contest. Along Highways 239 and 541 between Hobson (pop. 244), Utica and Windham, farmers display their creativity and humor with more than 50 hay sculptures. The creations have titles such as "Pi-hay-neers" and "Buf-hay-los," and drivers vote for their favorites.

Historic St. Mary's Mission in Stevensville (pop. 1,553) was established in 1841 and is filled with furnishings and artworks created by Anthony Ravalli, a priest, doctor, sculptor and pharmacist who served residents of western Montana from the 1840s to 1884.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—The Boone and Crockett Club, long recognized keeper of the records of North American big game, was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887. The club is headquartered in Missoula (pop. 57,053). Western novelist Ivan Doig, author of This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind and Ride With Me, Mariah Montana, was born in 1939 in White Sulphur Springs (pop. 984). Many of his novels were inspired by the Montana country of his youth, and three of his novels, known as the Montana trilogy, cover the first centennial of Montana's statehood, from 1889 to 1989.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–Maggie Merriman, of West Yellowstone (pop. 1,177), opened the first fly–fishing school for women in the West in 1978 and helped design the first fly–fishing vest for women in 1982. A Colt .44–caliber revolver owned by John McBride of Libby (pop. 2,626) sold at auction for a record bid of $800,000 last October. The Colt Walker pistol was made for U.S. marshals in the 1840s and belonged to McBride's great–great uncle.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—"Big Pine," on the banks of Fish Creek in Mineral County (pop. 3,884), is the largest known ponderosa pine tree in the state, standing nearly 200 feet tall and measuring about 20 feet in circumference. Two photographers most associated with Yellowstone National Park are the father-and-son duo F. Jay Haynes (1853-1921) and Jack Ellis Haynes (1884-1962). Both were designated the park's official photographers.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—Built in 1965 with a clipped gable roof, reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, the Lake McDonald Lodge Coffee Shop in Glacier National Park near Kalispell (pop. 14,223) was added last year to the National Register of Historic Places. Pony, in Madison County (pop. 6,851), was named for Tecumseh Smith, a miner who panned for gold in the area in the late 1860s. His short stature, less than 5 feet, earned him the nickname "Pony."

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—James Crumley, a crime writer known for books with hardened detectives, made Missoula (pop. 57,053) his home until his death last September. Crumley’s detectives worked cases in Montana bars and other rough hangouts in Big Sky Country. His novels include One Count to Cadence, The Mexican Tree Duck and his best-known, The Last Good Kiss.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—The Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Great Falls (pop. 56,690) is graced with 19 stained-glass windows created by Missoula (pop. 57,053) artist Dana Boussard. The artist spent two years making the windows, which contain 15,000 pieces of glass and were installed last October.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

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