Think you know all there is to know about Montana? Allow us to assist you in winning your next bet, argument or trivia night with these little-known facts about the Treasure State. Some of these are guaranteed to surprise you.

1. The first luge run in North America was built at Lolo Hot Springs in 1965.
Lolo Hot Springs Resort Facebook
That's a fun and random fact.
2. Bozeman's Museum of the Rockies is home to 13 T-Rex specimens, more than anywhere else in the world.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers / Flickr
3. In 1888, more millionaires per capita were living in this city than any other in the world.
Visit Helena Montana Facebook
The gold rush was good for Helena's growth.
4. In Montana, it is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.
dopiaza / Flickr
Now you know.
5. It's also illegal for a wife to open her husband's mail.
Noricum / Flickr
Wives, we'd be happy to tell your husbands that doing dishes is illegal as well.
6. There have been some strange, creepy cattle mutilations in Montana.
K-State Research and Extension / Flickr
There were 30 to 40 cases alone in the 1970s. And it seems like it happens at random every couple of years, at various parts of the state. And while typically most people would just assume the cows' predator had gotten carried away, there never seem to be any bite marks that would indicate a predator was to blame. And no vehicle tracks or footprints are found around the cows' bodies.
7. The Crazy Mountains are beautiful, but they got their name in a tragic way.
Jeremy Yoder / Flickr
In 1846, the Morgan family was crossing the area in a covered wagon on their way to settle in Oregon. When Mr. Morgan didn't return from retrieving the oxen, Mrs. Morgan sent her three children to find them. She soon found her family being gruesomely murdered by Blackfeet Indians. Mrs. Morgan fought back, splitting several Blackfeet heads open and sending them running for the hills. It was sadly too late for her family. Mrs. Morgan didn't live long after that, but the Blackfeet started calling them the Crazy Mountains, and the name stuck.
8. When you think of cowboys in the Old West, you probably picture white men. But that wasn't always the case.
Eric Gross / Flickr
18% of Montana homesteaders were unmarried women, and it was not unusual to see a black man – often a freed slave – as a cowboy or a fur trader.
9. At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls, more golden eagles have been spotted in a single day than anywhere else in the country.
Sam Beebe / Flickr
Even the wildlife knows Montana is the place to be.
10. 11 tribal nations live on 7 Indian reservations in Montana. A 12th tribe, the Little Shell Band of Chippewa, lives within the state without its own land.
Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ / Flickr
Native Americans are about 6% of our population.

Love out-of-the-ordinary Montana facts? Check out 8 of the weirdest things that ever happened here.

OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article.

Related Articles