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Montana’s economy is dominated by the primary sector—agriculture, forestry, mining, and energy production—and by services. About one-third of the state’s workforce is employed in the service sector. The outdoor recreation industry has become important, and some high-technology industries have come to the state. Per capita income is far lower than the national average, and poverty is a problem in several parts of the state, especially on Indian reservations.
Agriculture and forestry
Beef cattle, sheep, grain, sugar beets, potatoes, and fruit are produced on irrigated farms in the broad, dry valleys of Rocky Mountain Montana and in the incised valleys in Great Plains Montana. Wheat and barley are grown on large dryland grain farms throughout the two major grain-growing regions—the Golden Triangle and northeastern Montana—and in patches elsewhere. Most of the rest of the state is rangeland and is used in the livestock-ranching industry for the production of beef cattle and sheep.
Lumbering and the manufacture of forest products are vital to western Montana. Of the approximately 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of commercial forestland, about half is owned by the federal and state governments. Forest products constitute Montana’s third-largest industry.
Resources and power
Coal is one of the major mineral resources of Montana. Along with petroleum and natural gas, coal is extracted from the young, soft rocks of Great Plains Montana. Coal-fired thermoelectric plants are located at Colstrip and Billings. Gold, copper, platinum, talc, phosphate, vermiculite, sapphire, garnet, and other minerals are mined from the old, hard rocks of Rocky Mountain Montana and of the mountain outliers. Montana is among the top producers of talc in the United States.
Petroleum was discovered in commercial quantities at Elk Basin in 1915. The Elk Basin, Kevin-Sunburst, and Cut Bank fields led in production of petroleum and natural gas for several years. The great Williston Basin was developed in 1951, but the Bell Creek field in Powder River county has been the most productive.
Montana’s tremendous water resources provide for hydroelectric power production and for uses in other sectors of the economy. About one-third of the state’s electricity is generated by water. Runoff from the forested sides of the Rocky Mountains and the outliers recharges groundwater, fills lakes and reservoirs, and generates the flow of the great rivers. There are several large dams, power stations, and reservoirs, which are clustered mainly in the mountains of northwestern Montana.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing and processing industries contribute only about one-twentieth of Montana’s gross domestic product (GDP). There is some meatpacking, flour milling, and sugar refining, but most of the farm and ranch products are processed outside the state. The forestry industry includes the manufacture of plywood and of pulp and paper products. There is an aluminum plant at Columbia Falls, and petroleum refineries are located at Billings, Laurel, and Great Falls.
Services
Billings, Great Falls, Missoula, and Butte are the state’s major regional service centres. Tourism has become a significant component of Montana’s economy and is heavily promoted.
Transportation
A network of interstate and spur freight railway lines serves many parts of Montana, and an Amtrak passenger route crosses the northern part of the state. Total highway mileage in Montana is relatively low, but there is a well-developed network of interstate and primary highways between population centres. Montana has many public airports, including those in Billings, Great Falls, Helena, and other urban areas, and there are a large number of private-use airports all across the state. Several major airlines and air taxi lines serve the state, and many small planes are privately owned.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
Montana’s original constitution, adopted upon statehood in 1889, was replaced by a new one in 1972. The new document provided for a voter initiative process and voter review of local government every 10 years; both have been used vigorously in attempts to enact new laws and to amend the constitution itself.
The executive branch of state government includes a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, and superintendent of public instruction, all of whom are elected to four-year terms. The executive branch also includes a cabinet appointed by the governor, who controls virtually all appointments of government officers who are not elected. The bicameral legislature meets in odd-numbered years for 90-day sessions and is composed of 50 senators elected to four-year terms and 100 representatives elected to two-year terms.
Judges are elected without party designation. The highest court is the seven-member Supreme Court. The state has several dozen district courts apportioned over a smaller number of judicial districts. There are also a workers’ compensation court and a water court. Appeals are made directly from the lower courts to the Supreme Court. On the lowest level are justices of the peace and police judges.
Montana comprises 56 counties, and the county is the highest level of local government. Its powers and duties are defined and limited by state statutes. Three elected commissioners are the chief administrators, though a full-time manager may be employed instead. Municipal governments, like those of counties, derive all their authority from the state. They can, however, enact local ordinances, whereas counties cannot. Municipalities have police forces, and each county has an elected sheriff, who appoints deputies and has jurisdiction outside towns and cities. Some sheriffs and deputies, as well as federal officers, act as brand inspectors to prevent the sale of stolen livestock.
Montanans possessed a strong tradition of support for workers’ rights and labour unions, tilting the state politically for many years toward the Democratic Party, particularly in the mid to late 20th century. Thereafter a conservative trend took shape, and in the early 21st century loyalty to both the Republican and Democratic parties was so evenly divided, at least in state elections, that election patterns were not predictable. Ticket splitting is common. The state has an open primary; voters need not declare party affiliation. Registration is permanent unless a voter does not exercise the franchise within four years. In presidential elections, the state has trended toward the Republican Party; only twice (1964 and 1992) between 1952 and the end of the 20th century did the majority vote for the Democratic candidate.
Education
Although rural schools continue to consolidate and introduce bus transportation, many children attend small and not always adequate one- or two-teacher country schools. School districts are corporate bodies headed by a county superintendent of schools and governed by elected school boards. The level of educational attainment is somewhat higher than the national average; more than four-fifths of the state’s residents graduate from high school.
The state’s system of higher education was chartered in 1893. The main campus of Montana State University (MSU) is in Bozeman; additional campuses are located in Billings, Havre, and Great Falls. The University of Montana (UM) is located in Missoula. Within the MSU and UM systems are several colleges of technology, including Montana Tech of the University of Montana (founded 1900; formerly Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology), at Butte. There are also a number of church-affiliated private colleges, tribal colleges, community colleges, and public postsecondary vocational-technical schools.
Health and welfare
Montanans pay various penalties for the wide-open spaces they enjoy. An increasing number of communities have no dentists, physicians, or hospitals. Montana’s welfare program is state-supervised and administered by county departments of public welfare. Because of sparse population and few private social service agencies, costs are relatively high. Welfare departments are caught between pressure from taxpayers to curb programs and from organized low-income groups to provide wider services. There are special programs on Indian reservations.
Cultural life
Most artistic activity occurs in the cities with colleges and universities, several of which sponsor visits by lecturers and professional artists of various kinds in addition to presenting the work of faculty members and students. Several cities have symphony orchestras that include some professional musicians.
The Montana Institute of the Arts, founded in 1948, is a grassroots organization that ties together the scattered, often isolated practitioners of various arts and crafts through publications, an annual festival, and traveling exhibits. The Montana Arts Council, a state agency affiliated with the National Endowment for the Arts, funds dozens of local cultural organizations, primarily for music, drama, dance, literature, and the visual arts; it also promotes and documents folklife, including the traditional arts and crafts of a variety of ethnic groups. There are summer theatres in a number of communities; and the Montana Repertory Theater, based in Missoula, tours both inside and outside the state. Many Hollywood actors have made their first or second homes in Montana, especially in the area around Livingston. Writers who have lived in Montana include novelist Ivan Doig, author Wallace Stegner, Annick Smith, William Kittredge, Rick Bass, Deirdre McNamer, Norman Maclean, Richard Hugo, David Quammen, Jim Harrison, Thomas McGuane, and James Welch.
Several Native American tribes hold traditional dance ceremonies at which outsiders are welcome. There is an annual reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn on the Crow Indian Reservation. Rodeos abound, as do square-dance groups, and Montana is a thriving centre for old-time fiddling. In Red Lodge an annual nine-day Festival of Nations, originated to ease tensions between coal miners of different European ethnic groups, has become a tradition.
The Montana Historical Society maintains a museum, art gallery, and specialized library in Helena. The C.M. Russell Museum, in Great Falls, specializes in the works of the cowboy artist Charles Marion Russell. Billings is the location of the Yellowstone Art Museum and the Yellowstone County Museum. The excellent, small Museum of the Plains Indian is located west of Browning. Many communities nurture art galleries and small museums of local historical interest.
Montana’s spectacular scenery is one of its premier recreational attractions. A large proportion of the state’s land is given over to state and national parks and monuments, forests, recreational areas, wildlife refuges, and wildernesses. Venues for a wide range of outdoor recreational activities include Glacier National Park and the many national forests that are spread across the state. Sites of historic or cultural significance are Big Hole National Battlefield, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and Fort Benton, a former trading post.
Minor league baseball has had a significant presence in Montana, with teams located in Billings, Great Falls, and Helena since at least the 1970s and more recently in Missoula. Montana State University and the University of Montana compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Big Sky Conference. Among the notable athletes from Montana are daredevil Evel Knievel and major league baseball player Dave McNally.
Daily newspapers are published in the major cities; of note are the Helena Independent Record, Billings Gazette, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Missoulian (Missoula), and Great Falls Tribune.