No, not Hannah. Or Joe (though the small town of Ismay did briefly rename itself in his honor). The state.
Montana (from Spanish montaña meaning "mountain") is a state in the Mountain West region of the United States. The fourth-largest state by areanote , it's bordered by Idaho to the west, Wyoming to the south, North and South Dakota to the east, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to the north. With a population of just over 1 million people, it's the sixth-least populous and third-least densely populated state in the country. Its capital is Helena and its largest city is Billings; other cities of note include Missoula, Bozeman, and Great Falls.
Montana has been home to several Native American tribes — predominantly the Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and Salish nations — for thousands of years. France nominally laid claim to it as part of Louisiana, but there's no evidence any Frenchmen ever made it out that far. In 1804-5, however, it was part of the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Coast, which put it on the map for the European-American cultural sphere. European and Euro-American fur traders found trading with the locals to be a profitable endeavor, but this also led to violent conflicts and introduced highly contagious diseases to the local population that they had little natural resistance to. In the 1850s, gold was discovered in what's now Powell County in the western part of the state, and the result was predictable — settlers flocked to the territory by the hundreds, eventually thousands, and began setting up towns, villages, and homesteads in the territory. Naturally, the natives of the area were unimpressed by this development, leading to years of often brutal fighting between them and American troops — the Montana Territory saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Indian Wars, with Red Cloud's War, the Great Sioux War of 1876, and the Nez Perce War. Perhaps most famously, the Battle of Little Bighorn, where an alliance of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors under the command of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse annihilated the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army under George Armstrong Custer, was fought in modern Big Horn County.
Today, Montana is famous for its big open countryside, gorgeous mountain views, and the University of Montana, which despite its relatively small size (around 10,000 students) punches well above its weight in academic output and athletic performance. Mining remains a big part of its economy; like much of the Mountain West, it's also a popular tourism destination due to its state and national parks. It's also, believe it or not, a significant hub for micro and craft brewing, ranking second in craft breweries per capita in the nation. Politically, Montana, like its neighbors, generally tends conservative, but it's more hospitable to the moderate wing of the Democratic Party — one of its senators, Jon Tester, is a Democrat, as is popular now-former governor Steve Bullock. The causes of this are disputed among political scientists and analysts, but the status of Missoula as a major college town and the state's comparatively large Native American population are probably factors. It's also growing pretty fast, having gained a congressional seat in the 2020 census.
Historically, Montana's most notable politician was Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States who won a seat in the House in 1917, two years before women even had the right to vote in most of the country, and introduced the legislation that eventually granted that right. She was also an ardent pacifist and voted against America's entry into both World Wars, being the only vote to oppose entering World War II; this killed her political career but conveyed a profound degree of moral courage and principle that reflects the state's highest ideals.
"I would like to have seen Montana..."
