Montana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

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

Fort Peck Reservoir is Montana’s largest body of water. About 134 miles in length and 220 feet deep when full, the artificial lake has more than 1,600 miles of shoreline and a water surface area of about 240,000 acres. A 3.8 mile-long dam across the Missouri River created the lake in 1940.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The longest dog sled race in the lower 48 states begins each February in Lincoln (pop. 1,100). The Race to the Sky takes competitors across the Continental Divide on a 350-mile trek from Lincoln to Holland Lake and back.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Many historians believe that Francois and Louis Joseph de La Verendrye were the first white men to explore Montana. The two brothers were sent by their father, a French fur trader and explorer, with orders to explore as far West as they could. On Jan. 1, 1743, they saw what they called “shining mountains,” probably the Big Horn Mountains. Their surveying instrument was broken, so the brothers could not record their exact whereabouts.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Stevensville (pop. 1,553), the state’s oldest settlement, traces its history back more than 160 years. The town was founded shortly after St. Mary’s Mission was founded in 1841. Today, the mission is on the outskirts of town.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

West Yellowstone (pop. 1,177) bills itself as the “Snowmobile Capital of the World,” due largely to the average of more than 150 inches of snow each year and the more than 400 miles of snowmobile trails, which can be accessed from the community.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

A massive sculpture honoring international cooperation rises 57 feet above the top of the 420-foot Libby Dam near Libby (pop. 2,626). The Treaty Tower shows an American Indian holding back rearing horses, symbolic of man’s taming of nature. The tower was built to celebrate the treaty between the United States and Canada that allowed the dam to be built—creating a lake that stretches 42 miles into Canada.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

Chief Plenty Coups State Park near Pryor (pop. 628) is on land donated to the state by the Crow Indian chief in 1928. Chief Plenty Coups’ log home and store remain as testimony to the chief’s efforts to have the Crow adopt white man ways and live together in harmony. A museum showcases his accomplishments.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

The Bozeman Trail provided a shortcut for travelers from Fort Laramie, Wyo., to the gold fields of southern Montana. About 3,500 people used the trail running through Northern Plains Indian hunting grounds from 1864 to 1866, until frequent Indian attacks discouraged travel on the route. The town of Bozeman (pop. 27,509) is named for the creator of the route, John Bozeman.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone (pop. 1,177) educates visitors on the lives and behaviors of grizzly bears and gray wolves. Most bears at the center were either orphaned or became nuisances unafraid of humans after getting a taste of human foods. The latter would otherwise have had to be destroyed.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

A man known for his paintings of historical events helped decorate the Missoula County Courthouse in Missoula. Samuel Paxson is best known for his painting, Custer’s Last Stand. In 1912, he began work on a series of eight murals depicting Montana’s history for display in the courthouse. The paintings, completed in 1914, are still on display.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

In the early 1900s, medical researchers looking for a cure for Rocky Mountain spotted fever turned their attention to the woods near Hamilton (pop. 3,705), which were full of ticks that turned out to be carriers. Their work resulted in a vaccination against spotted fever, which is still produced at the Rocky Mountain Research Laboratory, built in Hamilton in 1927.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

The state’s longest bridge spans a lake that spreads into Canada. The Lake Koocanusa Bridge near Rexford (pop. 151) stretches 2,437 feet over the lake formed by Libby Dam.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Montana’s Bighorn River has a deserved reputation as one of the country’s top fishing spots. Fish counts put the trout population as high as 5,000 to 7,000 trout per mile of river.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

The Great Northern Railroad, in an effort to lure visitors to Glacier National Park, built a series of accommodations throughout the park—each one day’s ride by horse apart from the next. Visitors in the 1910s would arrive via the Great Northern at one of the park’s two depots and then begin a journey on horseback through the park, resting each night at a different hotel or chalet.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Louis Toavs has a collection of more than 500 John Deere tractors, including at least one of every model made from 1923 to 1953. The collection, kept at a farm near Wolf Point (pop. 2,663), also includes tractors dating to 1892 and implements such as plows and threshers.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the lower 48 states occurred near Helena (pop. 25,780). The mercury dipped to 70 degrees below zero on Rogers Pass in January 1954.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

An old copper smelter provides the setting for a new golf course near Anaconda (pop. 9,417). The Old Works Golf Course is built on the site of the Old Works smelter, which processed ore from nearby mines in the late 1800s. The golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, incorporates elements of the smelter into its design—such as the use of unburned coal or slag in sand traps.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

Explorer William Clark named Montana’s Milk River during his famous expedition with Meriwether Lewis. Upon seeing the river in 1805, Clark remarked that its color “resembles tea with a considerable mixture of milk.”

first appeared: 7/28/2002

The 13-mile Chinese Wall has a sheer face that rises 1,000 feet above the ground in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The wall, in the Continental Divide mountain range, was the result of a geologic upheaval in which the earth’s crust split and shifted. Eagles, mountain goats, and mountain sheep make their home in the cliffs.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

Near Chinook (pop. 1,386), Nez Perce Chief Joseph made his famous statement, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” It marked the end of his tribe’s 1,800-mile trek to reach Canada rather than go to a reservation. Pursued for months by U.S. Army forces, the tribe surrendered only 40 miles from the Canadian border after a six-day battle at what is now called the Bear Paw Battleground.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

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