State Facts

The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.
 

46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile. No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana.
 

Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation.
 

The first luge run in North America was built at Lolo Hot Springs on Lolo Pass in 1965. The density of the state is six people per square mile.
 

Montana's rivers and streams provide water for three oceans and three of the North American continent's major river basins.
 

Every spring nearly 10,000 white pelicans with a wingspan of nine feet migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to Medicine Lake in northeastern Montana.
 

More than 6 million tourists visit Yellowstone and Glacier national parks annually.
 

Among the approximately 100 species of mammals in Montana are elk, black bears, grizzly bears, antelope, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, moose, caribou, and mountain lions.
 

In 1940 the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed Fort Peck, one of the largest earthfill dams in the world.
 

In the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought near Hardin in 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George A.  Custer and all his command were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.