Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish revolutionary convicted of treason and exiled to a penal colony in Tasmania before he served as Montana’s territorial secretary and governor.

Nearly one fourth of Montana−22.4 million acres−is forested.  And the most common tree in the state of Montana is the Ponderosa pine, which was formally adopted as the state tree in 1949 at the urging of the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs.

In 1867 the United States Congress annulled all legislation passed by the second and third assemblies of the Montana territory; an unprecedented act in American history.

Montana was the first state to adopt a State Lullaby.

Montana has more species of mammals (108) than any other U.S. state.

Montana was the last state to establish an age limit for buying cigarettes.

The first federal census in 1870 showed only 20,595 people living in the Montana Territory.

The population of Petroleum County, Montana is just 494 people despite being larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Before being named the Montana Territory, Congress considered naming the state “Shoshone” to honor the Indians who lived in the state and “Jefferson” to honor the former President who commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

For over 100 years no one knew the name of the person who sculpted the bronze sculpture of a woman that sits atop Montana’s Capitol dome or where it came from.

Roy, Montana (pop. 108) owes its name to a spelling mistake. When Walter H. Peck established a post office on his ranch in 1892 he requested the name Ray in honor of a relative. However, someone in Washington D.C. misread the application and returned it with the name Roy instead.

(Facts via toddklassy.com; Feature photo via Trapline Photography)