Montana is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan to the north. It is the fourth-largest state by area, the eighth-least populous state, and the third-least densely populated state. Its capital is Helena, while the most populous city is Billings. The western half of the state contains numerous mountain ranges, while the eastern half is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands, with smaller mountain ranges found throughout the state.
Casselton is a city in Cass County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 2,479 at the 2020 census. making it the 20th largest city in North Dakota. Casselton was founded in 1876. The city is named in honor of George Washington Cass, a president of the Northern Pacific Railway, which established a station there in 1876 to develop a town for homesteaders. Casselton is the hometown of five North Dakota governors.
Wahpeton is a city in Richland County, in southeast North Dakota along the Bois de Sioux River at its confluence with the Otter Tail River, which forms the Red River of the North. Wahpeton is the county seat of Richland County. The population was 8,007 at the 2020 census.
The Great Northern Railway was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S.
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly 40 million acres of land grants, which it used to raise money in Europe for construction.
North Dakota was first settled by Native Americans several thousand years ago. The first Europeans explored the area in the 18th century establishing some limited trade with the natives.
The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America, agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population, and most towns were shipping points for the export of agricultural products. Most farms were geared toward subsistence production for family use. The rapid growth of population and the expansion of the frontier opened up large numbers of new farms, and clearing the land was a major preoccupation of farmers. After 1800, cotton became the chief crop in southern plantations, and the chief American export. After 1840, industrialization and urbanization opened up lucrative domestic markets. The number of farms grew from 1.4 million in 1850, to 4.0 million in 1880, and 6.4 million in 1910; then started to fall, dropping to 5.6 million in 1950 and 2.2 million in 2008.
This is a broad outline history of the state of Montana in the United States.
John Miller was a bonanza farmer, business man and American Republican politician in North Dakota. He served as the first Governor of North Dakota from 1889 to 1891, after it was admitted as a state to the union.
The Avery Company, founded by Robert Hanneman Avery, was an American farm tractor manufacturer famed for its undermounted engine which resembled a railroad engine more than a conventional farm steam engine. Avery founded the farm implement business after the Civil War. His company built a large line of products, including steam engines, beginning in 1891. The company started with a return flue design and later adapted the undermount style, including a bulldog design on the smokebox door. Their design was well received by farmers in central Illinois. They expanded their market nationwide and overseas until the 1920s, when they failed to innovate and the company faltered. They manufactured trucks for a period of time, and then automobiles. until they finally succumbed to an agricultural crisis and the Depression.
The Frederick A. and Sophia Bagg Bonanza Farm, also known as Bagg Bonanza Farm or F. A. Bagg Farm, is a former bonanza farm in Richland County, North Dakota, United States. Operated between about 1915 and 1935, the farm of the Baggs encompasses as many as 7,000 acres (2,800 ha), and was operated virtually like a factory according to modern business practices of the period. The surviving farm complex is now owned by a local non-profit organization and operates as a museum. It is one of the best-preserved examples of a bonanza farm complex in the nation, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005. It is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Mooreton.
The Thomas D. Campbell House is a historic Gothic Revival style log and wood frame home located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is significant for its association with Thomas D. Campbell, who became the largest wheat farmer in the United States. It is part of the Myra Museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Frank Jay Haynes, known as F. Jay or "the Professor" to almost all who knew him, was a professional photographer, publisher, and entrepreneur from Minnesota who played a major role in documenting through photographs the settlement and early history of the Northwestern United States. He became both the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railway and of Yellowstone National Park as well as operating early transportation concessions in the park. His photographs were widely published in articles, journals, and books, and turned into stereographs and postcards in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The following works deal with the cultural, political, economic, military, biographical and geologic history of pre-territorial Montana, Montana Territory and the State of Montana.
The Vogt–Nunberg Farm is a site on the National Register of Historic Places located in Wibaux, Montana. It was added to the Register on April 10, 2008. The application papers state the farm "is an important example of an early twentieth century diversified farming operation in eastern Montana".
The depopulation of the Great Plains refers to the large-scale migration of people from rural areas of the Great Plains of the United States to more urban areas and to the east and west coasts during the 20th century. This phenomenon of rural-to-urban migration has occurred to some degree in most areas of the United States, but has been especially pronounced in the Great Plains states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Many Great Plains counties have lost more than 60 percent of their former populations.
Wheat is produced in almost every state in the United States, and is one of the most grown grains in the country. The type and quantity vary between regions. The US is ranked fourth in production volume of wheat, with almost 50 million tons produced in 2020, behind only China, India and Russia. The US is ranked first in crop export volume; almost 50% of its total wheat production is exported.
The Grandin Brothers; John Livingston Grandin, William James Grandin and Elijah Bishop Grandin were a sibling trio of American entrepreneurs who were among the first to begin business ventures in commercial oil prospecting in the United States, and who later became involved in banking and Bonanza wheat farming. They eventually became titans of the wheat industry, operating the largest corporate wheat farm in the Dakota Territory in the late 19th century.
Thomas D. Campbell (1882–1966) was the "World's Wheat King". On the farms of his Campbell Farming Corporation he grew more wheat than any other farmer or corporation. He pioneered industrialized corporate farming. As a consultant in agriculture, he advised the British, French and Soviet governments, including advising Stalin in 1929 on large-scale farming for the Soviet Union's first five-year plan. He served in the U.S. military in World War II and developed the napalm fire bomb used in the Pacific Theatre. He became a brigadier general in the Air Force in 1946.
Railroad land grants in the United States made in the 1850s to 1870s, were instrumental in the building the nation's railway network in the Central United States west of Chicago. They enabled the rapid settlement of new farm and ranch lands as well as mining centers. Overall, government land grants to Western US railroads during the 1850s to 1880s played a crucial role in shaping the economic, social, and geographic landscape of the United States, laying the foundation for much of the nation's modern transportation infrastructure and facilitating the westward expansion of settlement and industry.
