Montana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 21

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

Many of Havre’s businesses went “underground” after a 1904 fire destroyed most of the downtown. Businesses including bakeries, bars, laundries, and pharmacies opened in the basements while the street-level buildings were restored. When the downtown was restored, the basement entrances were covered. The business area beneath Havre (pop. 10,201) has been partially restored and can be viewed in tours.

first appeared: 5/20/2001

Three Forks (pop. 1,203) gets its name from the nearby point where the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin rivers join to form the headwaters of the Missouri River. The rivers were named in July 1805 by the Lewis and Clark “Corps of Discovery,” which gave them the names of the president (Jefferson), secretary of state (Madison) and secretary of the treasury (Gallatin).

first appeared: 5/13/2001

Beaver Creek Park in Hill County (pop. 17,654) is the largest county park in the nation, covering 10,000 acres. The park is 10 miles long and one mile wide.

first appeared: 5/13/2001

Virginia City (pop. 142) is considered one of the best-preserved “gold boom” towns in the United States. Founded in 1863 as part of the Idaho Territory, Virginia City flourished until the gold ran out. Enough money trickled in to sustain the remaining population and businesses but not to renovate. So the Victorian buildings look much as they did more than 100 years ago.

first appeared: 5/6/2001

The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Miles City (pop. 8,461) in 1881 made the community a center for the cattle trade and earned it the status as Montana’s “cow capital,” a title it still holds.

first appeared: 4/29/2001

The Mai Wah, a building in the heart of “Chinatown” in Butte (pop. 33,336) housed several Chinese businesses during the town’s copper mining boom years. The building is now a museum dedicated to telling the story of Chinese workers and miners who lived in the area.

first appeared: 4/29/2001

Granite Peak is Montana’s highest point at an elevation of 12,799 feet. The peak is part of the Beartooth Mountain Range, which stretches into Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park.

first appeared: 4/22/2001

Glendive (pop. 4,802) boasts an active caviar industry and the title, “Paddlefish Capital of the World.” During paddlefish season from May 15-June 30, anglers are urged to donate the eggs, or “roe,” from their catches to the Glendive Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, which processes it into caviar for exclusive restaurants and cruise ships. Proceeds improve fisheries and recreation in eastern Montana.

first appeared: 4/15/2001

Anaconda (pop. 8,611) was almost named “Copperopolis” by Marcus Daly, president of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. He created the town as the site for a smelter to process ore and wanted to name it Copperopolis, but Montana already had a community called that, so he named the town after his mine.

first appeared: 4/15/2001

Plains Indians started using the “pishkun” or “buffalo jump” more than 2,000 years ago. Legend says a hunter shaking out his buffalo robe to disperse bothersome flies noticed it attracted buffalo. Indians used the robes to lure buffalo into a corral where the animals easily could be killed with arrows. A “piskun” later referred to stampeding herds of buffalo over a cliff to kill large numbers for food, clothing, shelter, and provisions.

first appeared: 4/8/2001

Big Medicine, a rare white bison born on the National Bison Range in 1933, wasn’t a true albino because it had light-blue eyes (instead of pink), tan hooves, and a dark-brown topknot. When Big Medicine died in 1959, he was mounted and displayed at the Montana Historical Society’s museum in Helena (pop. 27,982).

first appeared: 4/1/2001

A bronze statue of a faithful sheep dog was erected in 1995 in Fort Benton (pop. 1,654) in memory of Shep. The dog became a symbol for loyalty after his owner, a sheepherder whose name has apparently been lost to history, died in 1936. The herder’s body was sent back East for burial. Prevented from boarding the train carrying his owner’s casket, Shep patiently met each passenger train that came into the station for more than five years, waiting for his partner to return. The railroad section boss, Pat McSweeney, fed and watered Shep at the station until his passing in 1941.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

Butte (pop. 33,336), an old copper mining town, is home to one of the largest Madonnas in America. Our Lady of the Rockies, a 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary, stands atop the Continental Divide at an elevation of 8,510 feet. The statue was built by volunteers who worked for six years to complete it.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

One of the finest collections of dinosaur remains in Montana—including a 35-foot skeleton of a duckbill dinosaur and an enormous Triceratops skull—is on display at the Carter County Museum, located in Ekalaka (pop. 439). Most of the relics were found in the area.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

Prospectors looking for gold at Yogo Gulch in Montana noticed little translucent, blue pebbles. The stones turned out to be sapphires. Gemologists estimate the Yogo Sapphire reserves to be in excess of $1 billion, making it one of the largest sapphire deposits in the world.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

The most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered was found in 1988 by a couple of amateur bone diggers just outside the small town of Jordan (pop. 450). This badlands area south of the Missouri River has been the site of many important finds, including most of the other T-rex skeletons to be unearthed and many Triceratops remains.

first appeared: 3/4/2001

Grasshopper Glacier in Montana is aptly named for the grasshoppers that can be seen frozen in the ice. Scientists concluded that 300 years ago, a horde of insects was brought down in midflight by a storm and entombed in the ice.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

Montana’s Roe River competes with the D River in Lincoln City, Ore., for the title of world’s shortest river. Montana park officials say the east fork of the Roe is 201 feet long, while the west fork takes a shorter path around an island and is 58 feet long before it enters the Missouri River. The D River is 120 feet long.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

Montana earned one of its nicknames, “The Treasure State,” because of its reserves of gold, silver, and copper.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

Montana’s first territorial capital, Bannack, was the site of the territory’s first major gold strike in 1862. It is preserved today as a ghost town state park.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

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