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Montana Nicknames: Shining Mountains to Big Sky

Montana Nicknames: Shining Mountains to Big Sky. Linda Wostrel Historian, S&D of MT Pioneers 112 th Annual Convention – Virginia City MT August 04, 2007. Presentation Overview. Motto vs. Nickname 1740’s: Northern Rockies: Shining Mountains 1894: The Shining 1922: Stubbed-Toe State

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Montana Nicknames: Shining Mountains to Big Sky

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  1. Montana Nicknames: Shining Mountains to Big Sky Linda Wostrel Historian, S&D of MT Pioneers 112th Annual Convention – Virginia City MT August 04, 2007

  2. Presentation Overview • Motto vs. Nickname • 1740’s: Northern Rockies: Shining Mountains • 1894: The Shining • 1922: Stubbed-Toe State • 1935: Life in Butte was High, Wide and Occasionally Handsome • 1940: High, Wide and Handsome • 1950 – 1966: The Treasure State • 1961: Big Sky Country • 1985: Montana: Naturally Inviting • 1988: Montana – Unspoiled, Unforgettable • 1995: EZ 2 LUV • 2007: Big Sky Country ?? • Other Names: The Bonanza State, The Mountain State, The Headwaters State • Closing Thoughts

  3. Motto vs. Nickname • Motto decided when conceiving the official Seal for MT Territory • 1865 Territorial Governor Sidney Edgerton signed bill that state motto would be Oro y Plata (Gold and Silver) • Incorporated essential elements of Montana’s economy and its future • Every US state has a nickname (or two, or more) but not all state nicknames are “official” – can become nickname by common use

  4. 1740’s: Northern Rockies: Shining Mountains, the Shining • French went west in quest for a Northwest Passage, need to expand the fur trade and the urge to beat the British • January 1743 – Brothers Louis Joseph and Francois Verendre, crossed the Dakota plains and with a war party (Cheyenne or Crow) and saw what they called the “Shining Mountains – “were for the most part well wooded and with all kinds of timber and appeared very high” • It is believed they were the Big Horn Range of Wyoming and if so, they may have been the first white men to enter Montana • According to historian, Joaquin Miller, Native tribes also referred to the Rockies as “the Shining” because of their glittering snow • Source: Malone & Roeder, Montana: A History of Two Centuries (Seattle, 1976), 19-20. • Source: Joaquin Miller, An Illustrated History of the State of Montana (Chicago, 1894), 9-10. • All photos courtesy of Travel Montana, Montana Photo Gallery http://mt.gov/PhotoGallery/

  5. Stubbed-Toe State • First found in 1922 edition of the World Almanac • Dictionary of Americanisms’s – refers to mountainous region of western Montana where rocks might pose a hazard to novice hiker • Montana boosters distanced themselves from this nickname • Source: Walter, “Chronological List”’ Mitford Mathews, A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (Chicago, IL, 1951), 1667

  6. 1935: Life in Butte was High, Wide and Occasionally Handsome 1940: Montana: High, Wide and Handsome • Per Glasscock’s book War of the Copper Kings, life in Butte was high, wide and occasionally handsome - may be connected to the next way of describing Montana • Montana: High, Wide and Handsome was on the cover of a Montana Highway Department publicity brochure in 1940 – 3 years prior to the publication of Joseph Kinsey Howards’s book by the same name • Source: Brian Shovers From Treasure State to Big Sky, Montana The Magazine of Western History (Spring, 2003), 58-61. • Source: Butte photo from Big Sky Fishing.com website

  7. The Treasure State • The Treasure State refers to the rich gold and silver deposits mined in Montana • The Treasure State nickname was first used in an 1895 guidebook and remained popular for several decades • Every Montana license plate made between 1950 and 1966 included the nickname The Treasure State

  8. Big Sky Country • In 1961, Jack Hallowell secured permission from A. B. “Bud” Guthrie to use “Big Sky” to promote tourism. • The Big Sky, title of Guthrie’s classic novel of the America Fur Trade originated with his editor Bill Sloane • Guthrie included in his biographical notes a comment his father made during his first day in Montana “Standing under the big sky I feel free” • Source: Hallowell to Shirley, October 25, 1989, Charles Hood, “Hard Work and Tough Dreaming: A Biography of A. B. Guthrie, Jr. (Master’s thesis, University of Montana, 1969), 51

  9. 1985: Montana: Naturally Inviting1988: Montana: Unspoiled, Unforgettable1995: EZ 2 LUV • In 1970’s Chet Huntley obtained permission from the State of Montana to name his new ski area near Bozeman Big Sky Resort • Fearing the Montana nickname may be confused with advertising for the popular resort, state promoters sought a new slogan • 1985: Montana: Naturally Inviting • 1988: Montana: Unspoiled, Unforgettable • 1995: EZ 2 LUV – derived from a Montana State University student’s vanity plate

  10. Montana’s Nickname .. All of This and More!

  11. Closing Thoughts • I am in love with Montana For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection but with Montana it is love, and it is difficult to analyze love when you are in it – John Steinbeck Travels with Charley

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