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About Montana Place Names

Montana is a vast landscape whose history and significance are of interest to both its residents and tourists passing through. As long as humans have inhabited Montana they have been naming places, and as long as waves of settlement have occurred, other people have been re-naming some of those same places. The Native peoples of Montana that inhabit the seven reservations and surrounding communities have their own names for these places. Clues to the meaning of the past can be found in the names that grace the contemporary Montana highway map, and the guidebook and this accompanying web application strive to illuminate some of the mysteries. The entries document the names as we currently know them, and whenever possible, include both the history of the present name, as well as any and all previous names.

The Montana Place Names project began at the reference desk at the Montana Historical Society Research Center in Helena. A patron called about the origin of a mountain peak name. While Roberta Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana has been the standard source since 1983, we lamented the absence of a comprehensive source on natural features and historic sites in Montana. One of our patrons pointed out that if there was ever a team to write that book, we were it.

A team of five MHS historians met every Friday morning for two years to share our research. Along the way we received the assistance of the staff at the Montana State Library. Butte native Jim Hill and his amazing staff at the Natural Resource Information System (NRIS), especially Sibyl Govan and Gerry Daumiller, built the database into which we entered all of our data and assisted us in many ways as we compiled thousands of bytes of data. Ultimately, however, this project was completed because of the assistance we received from a wide variety of Montanans from across the state itself. They responded to our phone calls, emails, and letters time and again, patiently correcting "those people up in Helena" who had it all wrong. We called museums, coffee shops, local libraries, and schools from the Yaak to the Crow Reservation. We asked old friends, slight acquaintances, and total strangers to help us, and they did. Then, once we had a complete rough draft of the entries, we sent them to folks in all 56 counties and all seven Indian Reservations. We received comments, edits, and suggestions from almost every single one. We were awed. We were surprised. We were humbled. And we were so glad we asked. What we learned is to keep asking and listening. To that end we invite you to submit comments and edits via the Comments tab on each entry so that we can stay true to the vision that this is a work that belongs to all Montanans.

This new traveler's guide, based on the places found on the 2003 Montana highway map, explores the origins of more than 1100 Montana place names, drawing upon the knowledge of Montana Historical Society historians and the Society's extensive collection of historic maps and newspapers, and the expertise of local and county historians. Early on the authors of Montana Place Names decided to focus on the cities and towns that have persisted over time and to exclude those long gone.

Since geography has played such a crucial role in the unfolding of human history in Montana, we have included hundreds of geographic features from rivers to mountains. In some instances the place name describes the color or form of a prominent feature, such as Yellowstone River or Heart Butte or Sphinx Mountain. This guide also includes many of Montana's fifty mountain ranges, and significant summits, particularly those over 10,000 feet in elevation. The book also names the prominent rivers and lakes found across the Montana landscape spanning over 147,000 square miles from Ekalaka to Yaak.

Other entries include historic places listed on the National Register of Historic Places, identified by the National Park Service as cultural resources worthy of recognition. The guide identifies over 100 historic sites and National Historic Landmarks scattered across the state, significant to either Montana or American history. These sites range from military forts to early missions and churches to archeological sites to engineering marvels like bridges and dams to ranches and homesteads, and tourist lodges and inns.

This companion website, http://mtplacenames.org built and managed by NRIS at the Montana State Library, represents a dynamic form of the book, Montana Place Names From Alzada to Zortman. Your critical response to it in the form of corrections and additions, contributes to the sense of community that develops around a conversation about the history of Montana and its places and will be the basis for a revised edition of the book sometime in the future. Use this companion site to discover place names, personal names and descriptions of places found in the guidebook along with new entries that will undoubtedly be added.

For technical assistance please contact Montana State Library Geographic Information staff. For questions or comments regarding the content please contact the staff of the Montana Historical Society Research Center.

Happy Trails!

The Authors: Rich Aarstad, Ellie Arguimbau, Ellen Baumler, Charlene Porsild, and Brian Shovers

All photographs used in this web site are from the Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, Helena (MHS), unless otherwise credited. Those with H numbers are from the Montana Historical Society's Haynes Foundation Collection.