Montana is home to the site of “Custer’s Last Stand”, the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn in which a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne force engaged with the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. army in June of 1876. The battle resulted in a resounding victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne led by Sitting Bull, and resulted in the deaths of the members of five of the Seventh’s companies including General George Armstrong Custer, the cavalry’s leader. A painting of “Custer’s Last Stand” was commissioned by Anheuser-Busch soon after the battle and the painting became a fixture in bars across the country.
While Montana’s economy is based primarily on agriculture with major crops including wheat, barley, sugar beets, honey, cherries, and cattle and sheep ranching, it earns its nickname “The Treasure State” with its abundance of gold, coal, silver, talc and vermiculite. Tourism is also vital to the economy as millions of visitors each year flock to Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.
Roads
Interstate 15: Entering Montana at its border with Idaho, I-15 travels through 400 miles of Big Sky Country passing through the cities of Butte, Helena and Great Falls before heading to its northern terminus at the Canadian border.
Interstate 90: I-90 travels nearly the entire east-west girth of Montana. Its 552 miles span the distance between Idaho and Wyoming.
Interstate 94: The rather circuitous route of I-94 includes traveling from its beginning in Billings toward Wyoming, then northeastward towards Miles City before heading eastward to North Dakota.