November 8, 1889: Montana Is Admitted As the 41st State

November 8, 1889: Montana is admitted to the Union as the 41st State.

Montana is in the Rocky Mountain States. The eastern part of it had been acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the western part through the Oregon Treaty of 1846. It has become known for mining, cattle ranching, and fishing. While still a Territory, the Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought on June 25, 1876, in what is now the town of Crow Agency.

Montana has usually elected conservatives, even when they've been Democrats. But not always: Their most famous politician has been the liberal Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader from 1961 to 1977, the longest-serving Senator floor leader either major Party has ever had.

Montana is over 550 miles from east to west, and nearly 400 miles from north to south. Despite this vast size, Montana has only 1.1 million people, and has no city large enough to host a major league sports team. Only Alaska, Texas and California are larger States by area; but only Wyoming and Alaska are less densely populated States.

As a result, Montana's conservatism has always had a traditional Western style, with a libertarian "Leave me alone" edge. And all that empty space has allowed shady people a place to hide. In 1971, mathematics professor Theodore Kaczynski moved to a cabin without electric power or running water, near Lincoln, and became the terrorist known to the public as the Unabomber, mailing bombs to big-tech targets.

The "Montana Freemen" were a "Christian Patriot" militia group, based outside Jordan, calling their land "Justus Township" (as in, "Just us," not "Justice"). They considered themselves "sovereign citizens," and printed their own money -- making them guilty of counterfeiting and bank fraud. The FBI arrested both the Unabomber and the Freemen in 1996.

While Montana doesn't have major league teams, there are 4 minor-league baseball teams there, all in the Pioneer League, an independent but major-league-connected league, at roughly Class A, 3 levels below the majors. Those teams are the Billings Mustangs, the Glacier Range Riders of Kalispell, the Great Falls Voyagers, and the Missoula PaddleHeads.

The University of Montana is in Billings, and Montana State University is in Bozeman. Both teams compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly known as Division I-AA), and while nobody outside the State cares about their rivalry, they are about it, a lot. The capital is Helena.

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November 8, 1889 was a Tuesday. There were no games on this historic day: Baseball was out of season, football was in midweek, hockey barely existed, and basketball didn't, as it wouldn't be invented for another 2 years.