Relocating to Montana?

Enjoy your adventure as you visit the best Montana relocation resource available today.

Before you start your journey, take a minute and review what makes Montana a great place to work and play.

What makes Montana real estate worthwhile?

The legendary big sky of Montana stretches over the glaciers, mountain peaks, and vast expanses of this land of grandeur and diversity. Glacial action during the last Ice Age left its mark on the state’s rugged topography, and some of the most inaccessible places in the country are found in the mountains of western Montana. More than 50 ranges of the Rocky Mountains blanket the western third of the state. Jagged, glacially carved peaks in the north are dissected by slender valleys and cloaked in thick forests of fir, cedar, and pine. Glaciers creep down mountain slopes in the higher elevations, and large stretches of land are perpetually snowbound. Moving south, the valleys grow broader, and the mountains rise higher. Granite Peak, at 3,901 meters (12,799 feet) the loftiest peak in Montana, stands near Yellowstone National Park along the border with Wyoming.

It was the discovery of gold in 1862 that incited the first sizable influx of European settlers into Montana. Before that time, the European presence in the area was limited to a few isolated trading posts established in territory that was also home to many Native American groups, among them the Blackfoot, the Crow, the Salish, and the Cheyenne. Most of these people depended on buffalo hunting to supply food and other materials; they also gathered wild plants, but grew no crops except for tobacco, which they used as medicine and in religious rituals.

The Lewis and Clark expedition explored a good deal of the region in 1805 and 1806, just a few years after the United States had acquired most of present-day Montana as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

In the 1860s a series of gold strikes gave birth to raucous mining camps and a general lawlessness throughout the land. With no legal authorities to turn to for help, the citizens took the law into their own hands by forming vigilante committees. Congress attempted to establish order in the region through the creation of the Montana Territory in 1864. It was also during this period that large-scale ranching began in Montana. This development, combined with the intrusion of the mining operations, led to tragic confrontations between federal troops and Native Americans. In 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors annihilated George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But by 1877 the surrender of Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé in northwestern Montana signaled the end of Native American resistance in the territory. Today about two-thirds of the state’s Native Americans—who make up about 6 percent of the Montana population—live on one of the seven reservations of Montana.

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Montana Homes & Land, LLC - Your resource for Montana real estate

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