Big Sky Country

Statehood:
November 8, 1889
(41st)

Motto:
Gold and Silver

Under the word "Montana", on a blue field, is the state seal. The seal shows some of Montana's beautiful scenery and tells what people were doing in pioneer times. The pick, shovel and plow represent mining and farming. In the background a sun rises over mountains, forests and the Great Falls of the Missouri river. A ribbon contains the state motto "Gold and Silver". Flag adopted 1905 amended 1981.

 

Counties of Montana

Montana has two consolidated city - counties - Anaconda with Deer Lodge County and Butte with Silver Bow County. The portion of Yellowstone National Park that lies within Montana was not part of any county until 1978, when part of it was nominally added to Gallatin County, and the rest of it to Park County. Eight counties of the state are composed of two or more words.

Montana is both a Latin and Spanish word for a mountainous region, a name first applied to the region in 1864. At this time, Sidney Edgerton, the chief justice of the Idaho territorial Supreme Court, persuaded congressman and chair of the House Committee on Territories James M. Ashley (Republican-Ohio) to carry forward a bill creating a new territory, which Ashley called "Montana." The bill was successful and President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law on May 26, 1864. Upon his appointment as territorial governor, Sidney Edgerton returned to Montana and designated Bannack as the temporary capital of the new territory. Edgerton presided over the first legislature which on Feb. 2, 1865 created the territory’s nine original counties.

Beaverhead Fallon Lake Petroleum Sheridan
Big Horn Fergus Lewis & Clark Phillips Silver Bow
Blaine Flathead Liberty Pondera Stillwater
Broadwater Gallatin Lincoln Prairie Sweet Grass
Cascade Garfield Madison Powder River Teton
Chouteau Glacier Meagher Powell Toole
Carbon Granite McCone Ravalli Treasure
Carter Golden Valley Mineral Richland Valley
Custer Hill Missoula Roosevelt Wheatland
Daniels Jefferson Musselshell Rosebud Wibaux
Dawson Judith Basin Park Sanders Yellowstone
Deer Lodge        

 

Nine Original Counties (1865)

 

Creation Date

County

County Seat

02 February 1865

Beaverhead

Dillon

02 February 1865

Big Horn (Custer)*

02 February 1865

Chouteau

Fort Benton

02 February 1865

Deer Lodge

Anaconda

02 February 1865

Gallatin

Bozeman

02 February 1865

Jefferson

Boulder

02 February 1865

Edgerton (Lewis and Clark)**

Helena

02 February 1865

Madison

Virginia City

02 February 1865

Missoula

Missoula

 

*Although created as one of Montana’s nine original counties, the first territorial legislature administratively attached Big Horn County to Gallatin County. The legislature changed the name of Big Horn County to Custer in Feb. 1877 following the June 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn. Big Horn County experienced a re-birth of sorts when in 1913 during Montana’s county splitting heyday the name was reused for a new county.

**The territorial legislature changed the name of Edgerton County to Lewis and Clarke County in 1867, fixing the spelling of "Clarke" at a later date.

Territorial Counties (1866-1888)

 

Creation Date

County

County Seat

26 March 1866

Meagher

White Sulphur Springs

15 January 1869

Dawson

Glendive

16 February 1877

Custer (just a name change; see Big Horn above)

Miles City

16 February 1881

Silver Bow

Butte

16 February 1883

Yellowstone

Billings

12 March 1885

Fergus

Lewistown

23 February 1887

Park

Livingston

12 September 1887

Cascade

Great Falls

Early Statehood Counties (1889-1909)

 

Creation Date

County

County Seat

06 February 1893

Flathead

Kalispell

06 February 1893

Valley

Glasgow

07 February 1893

Teton

Choteau

16 February 1893

Ravalli

Hamilton

02 March 1893

Granite

Philipsburg

04 March 1895

Carbon

Red Lodge

05 March 1895

Sweet Grass

Big Timber

01 March 1897

Broadwater

Townsend

31 January 1901

Powell

Deer Lodge

11 February 1901

Rosebud

Forsyth

07 February 1905

Sanders

Thompson Falls

09 March 1909

Lincoln

Libby

Homestead Boom Counties (1910-1925)

 

Creation Date

County

County Seat

11 February 1911

Musselshell

Roundup

28 February 1912

Hill

Havre

02 March 1912

Blaine

Chinook

13 January 1913

Big Horn

Hardin

24 March 1913

Stillwater

Columbus

27 March 1913

Sheridan

Plentywood

09 December 1913

Fallon

Baker

07 May 1914

Toole

Shelby

03 June 1914

Richland

Sidney

07 August 1914

Mineral

Superior

17 August 1914

Wibaux

Wibaux

05 February 1915

Phillips

Malta

05 February 1915

Prairie

Terry

22 February 1917

Carter

Ekalaka

01 April 1917

Wheatland

Harlowton

07 February 1919

Garfield

Jordan

07 February 1919

Treasure

Hysham

12 February 1919

McCone

Circle

17 February 1919

Glacier

Cut Bank

17 February 1919

Pondera

Conrad

18 February 1919

Roosevelt

Wolf Point

07 March1919

Powder River

Broadus

11 February 1920

Liberty

Chester

08 March 1920

Golden Valley

Ryegate

01 June 1920

Daniels

Scobey

10 December 1920

Judith Basin

Stanford

10 August 1923

Lake

Polson

22 February 1925

Petroleum

Winnett