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Montana
Big Sky Country, where the plains meet the Rockies
Montana is the fourth-largest state, and its name — from the Spanish for "mountain" — only tells half the story. The western third is all mountains, a tangle of Rocky Mountain ranges where the Continental Divide threads through alpine peaks, glacial lakes, and the spectacular country of Glacier National Park. The eastern two-thirds are the opposite: vast, open High Plains rolling toward the Dakotas, cut by river breaks and badlands. Between them, the abrupt rise of the Rocky Mountain Front is one of the sharpest plains-to-mountain transitions on the continent.
This is "Big Sky Country," a name earned by the enormous open horizons of the plains, where the land runs flat for miles beneath a dome of weather. Granite Peak, the high point at 12,807 feet (3,904 m), hides among the Beartooth Range in the south. The Missouri River gathers its headwaters here before beginning its long run east. Thinly populated and immense, Montana balances ranching and farming on the plains with mining, timber, and tourism in the mountains.
Economy
Montana's economy is built on agriculture and ranching - cattle and wheat across its vast open country - and on natural resources, including coal, copper, and oil and gas that earned it the Treasure State nickname. Tourism is a growing pillar, drawn to Glacier National Park and the Yellowstone gateway.
Politics
Montana carries 4 electoral votes and votes reliably Republican in presidential elections, though its independent streak has at times sent Democrats to statewide office. Its small, rural population gives it an outsized libertarian and individualist political culture.