Montana Fast Facts and Key Resources

? Statehood: 1889

? US territory status: 1864 (part of Idaho Territory in 1863; previously part of Washington and Dakota territories)

? Territorial capital: Bannack in 1864; Virginia City from 1865 to 1875

? First federal census: 1870

? Statewide birth and death records begin: 1907

? Statewide marriage and divorce records begin: 1943

? Public-land state

? Counties: 11 in 1870; 24 in 1900; 56 today

? Contact for vital records:

Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Vital Records and Statistics

Box 4210

Helena, MT 59604

(406) 444-2685

<www.dphhs.mt.gov>

WEB SITES

? Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records

<www.glorecords.blm.gov>

? Custer’s Last Stand, 1876, Dead and Wounded

<ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ sd/ military / big-horn.txt>

? Cyndi’s List — Montana

<www.cyndislist.com/mt.htm>

? Montana Counties

<www.discoveringmontana.com/maco/pages/counties.htm>

? Montana GenWeb Project

<www.rootsweb.com/~mtgenweb>

? Montana State Maps

<www.discoveringmontana.com/discover /statemap.asp>

? Montana Veterans History Project

<www.edheritage.org/vets/veterans.htm>

? Mountain Men and the Fur Trade

<roxen.xmission.com/~drudy/ amm.html>

RESOURCES

? Bibliography of Montana Local Histories by Coburn Johnson (Montana Library Association)

? Bound for Montana: Diaries from the Bozeman Trail edited by Susan Badger Doyle (Montana Historical Society Pres)

? A History of Montana edited by Merrill G. Burlingame and K. Ross Toole (Lewis Historical Publishing Co.)

? Montana: The Magazine of Western History (Montana Historical Society)

? Montana’s Genealogical and Local History Records by Dennis Lee Richards (Gale Research Co.)

? Names on the Face of Montana: The Story of Montana’s Place Names by Roberta Carkeek Cheney (Mountain Press Publishing)

ORGANIZATIONS and ARCHIVES

? Bureau of Land Management, Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive, Billings, MT 59107, (406) 896-5013, <www.mt.blm.gov/bifo>

? Great Falls Public Library
Cascade County Historical Society Archives, 301 Second Ave. N., Great Falls, MT 59401, (406) 452-3462, <www.greatfallslibrary.org>

? Montana Historical Society Research Center
Library and Archives Division, 225 N. Roberts St., Helena, MT 59620, (406) 444-2681, <www.his.state.mt.us>

? Montana State Genealogical Society
Box 555, Chester, MT 59522, <www.rootsweb.com/~mtmsgs>

? Montana State University — Bozeman
Renne Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections, Box 173320, Bozeman, MT 59717, (406) 994-4242, <www.lib.montana.edu>

? National Archives & Records Administration, Pacific Alaska Region
6125 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98115, (206) 336-5115, <www.archives.gov/facilities/wa/seattle.html>

? National Archives & Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region
Building 48, Denver Federal Center, West Sixth Avenue and Kipling Street, Denver, CO 80225, (303) 407-5700, <www.archives.gov/facilities/co/denver.html>