Montana Nicknames: Shining Mountains to Big Sky

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Montana Nicknames Shining Mountains to Big Sky

• Linda Wostrel
• Historian, SD of MT Pioneers
• 112th Annual Convention Virginia City MT
• August 04, 2007

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Presentation Overview

• Motto vs. Nickname
• 1740s 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

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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 Montanas
  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

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1740s 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/

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Stubbed-Toe State

• First found in 1922 edition of the World Almanac
• Dictionary of Americanismss 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

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1935 Life in Butte was High, Wide and
Occasionally Handsome 1940 Montana High,
Wide and Handsome

• Per Glasscocks 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 Howardss 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

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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

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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 Guthries 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. (Masters thesis,
  University of Montana, 1969), 51

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1985 Montana Naturally Inviting1988
Montana Unspoiled, Unforgettable1995 EZ 2 LUV

• In 1970s 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 students vanity plate

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Montanas Nickname .. All of This and More!
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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