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List of people in Montana history

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State of Montana

This is a list of notable figures in the history of pre-territorial Montana, Montana Territory and the state of Montana, including those with significant roles in the exploration and settlement of the region as well as the cultural, economic, military, political, and social development of Montana.

Montana is a state in the Western United States. Added to the U.S. in 1803 and shortly thereafter explored by Lewis and Clark, the territory was home to numerous Native American peoples for millennia. In the mid-19th century the discovery of gold and other valuable minerals led to successive mining booms. Settlement by farmers and ranchers expanded as railroads raced to build networks of tracks linking Montana to Utah to the south, Minneapolis to the east, and Seattle to the west. Montana produced numerous important politicians from both political parties, as well as entrepreneurs who founded cities and built large mining, timber, cattle and other related industries. Individuals have been placed in the period in which they most contributed to Montana history.

Pre-territorial period[edit]

Pierre-Jean De Smet

Montana Territory (1864–1889)[edit]

Portrait of John Bozeman[1]

The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana. This era was characterized by fighting between the Plains Indians and the U.S. Army, large-scale mining operations, the beginning of substantial agricultural and large cattle ranching operations, and the arrival of the railroads.

William H. Clagett

Montana statehood to World War II (1889–1945)[edit]

Jeanette Rankin, February 1917, just before becoming the first woman in Congress

Modern Montana (1945–2000)[edit]

  • George F. Grant, (1906–2008) was an angler, author and conservationist from Butte, Montana. He was active for many years on the Big Hole River.[10] In 1988 Grant established the Big Hole Foundation to focus conservation efforts on the river he had saved through his earlier conservation activities.
  • A. B. Guthrie, Jr., (1901–1991) was a novelist, historian, and literary historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950 for his The Way West dealing with the Oregon Trail and the development of Montana.
  • Michael Joseph Mansfield, (1903–2001) was a politician and the longest-serving Majority Leader of the United States Senate, serving from 1961 to 1977. Mansfield represented the state of Montana throughout his political career.
  • Lee Metcalf (1911–1978) was a politician from the Democratic Party who represented Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1953 to 1961 and the U.S. Senate from 1961 to 1978. He was a noted supporter of environmental and liberal social legislation during his time in Congress.
  • James E. Murray (1876–1961) was a United States Senator, and a leader of the Democratic Party. He served in the United States Senate from 1934 until 1961.
  • Kenneth Ross Toole, (1920–1981) was an historian, author, and educator who specialized in the history of Montana. Perhaps the best-known and most influential of the state's 20th-century historians, Toole served as director of the state's historical society, authored several noted volumes of state history and social commentary, and was a popular professor at the University of Montana for 16 years.
  • Robert Craig Knievel, (1938-2007) known as Evel Knievel a daredevil from Butte, Montana. Best known for his jump across the Snake River and Grand Canyon. He suffered many injuries during his career and entertained and inspired many people.

Montana (21st century)[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Hebard, Grace Raymond; Brininstool, E.A. (1922). The Bozeman Trail-Historical Accounts of the Blazing of the Overland Routes into the Northwest, and the Fights with Red Cloud's Warriors – Volume II. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. frontispiece. Search this book on
  2. Thane, James L., Jr. (October 1976). "An Ohio Abolitionist in the Far West: Sidney Edgerton and the Opening of Montana, 1863–1866". The Pacific Northwest Quarterly. 67 (4): 151–162. JSTOR 40489499.
  3. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and the Founding of the Yellowstone National Park. Washington, D.C: United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey, U.S. Government Printing Office. 1973. Search this book on
  4. 4.0 4.1 Bonney, Orrin H.; Bonney, Lorraine (1970). Battle Drums and Geysers-The Life And Journals of Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, Soldier And Explorer of the Yellowstone And Snake River Regions. Chicago: Swallow Press. pp. 3–158. Search this book on
  5. Milner, Clyde A.; O'Conner, Carol A. (2009). As Big As The West-The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512709-6. Search this book on
  6. Lucey, Donna M. (2001). Photographing Montana 1894–1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing. ISBN 0-87842-425-3. Search this book on
  7. Dippie, Brian W. (2005). "Russell, Charles Marion". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XV (1921–1930) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  8. "Women in Congress-Jeannette Rankin". Archived from the original on November 3, 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2010. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  9. Hanna, Warren L. (1988). "James Willard Schultz-The Pikuni Storyteller". Stars over Montana-Men Who Made Glacier National Park History. West Glacier, MT: Glacier Natural History Association. pp. 95–111. OCLC 19568576. Search this book on
  10. "George Francis Grant (1906–2008): fly tyer, environmentalist, founder". December 18, 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2010.


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