Description of Montana, US

Within the Western United States, Montana is part of the Mountain West. More land is occupied in Alaska and Wyoming than in any other state, yet only Texas and California are less densely populated than Montana. As well as the U.S. states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho, Montana has northern borders with British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. The lowest average elevation of any of the Mountain states is found in Montana, despite its name being derived from the Spanish word montaa, which means "mountain" or "mountainous country" (1,040 metres). Western Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming are home to the Rocky Mountains, which run northwest-southeast from British Columbia. Contrastingly, a gently rolling landscape and few indications of human occupation characterize the state's eastern part. They form the northern Great Plains along with the neighboring states of Saskatchewan and North and South Dakota as well as the northeastern part of Wyoming. The state's capital is Helena.

Montanans live a long way from their product's target market and the nation's major centers of production and delivery. All kinds of outdoor activities, including hunting and fishing, are a big part of the state's culture. Long-distance travel is a great way to meet new people, have fun, and get away from the monotony of life on the plains or in the mountains.

Montana, despite its northern location, is a Western state in all but name, not just geographically. Located in Helena's central business district, Last Chance Gulch is the city's original moniker and an homage to the gold prospectors who flocked to the nearby hills in the 1860s. Aside from the cattle drive, Montana was already emerging as a major copper-mining center when it became a full state in 1889. The state of Montana is known as the "Treasure State" because of its abundance of minerals.

Geographical Description of Montana

There are eight Mountain States, and Montana is one of them. It is located north-northwest of Washington, D.C. South Dakota and North Dakota border it on the east. There are three Canadian provinces to the north, three to the west and two to the south: British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The total land area of Montana is greater than Japan's, at 147,040 square miles (380,800 km2). It is the fourth-biggest state in the United States, behind Alaska, Texas, and California, and the largest landlocked state.

Most of Montana's Great Plains have a semiarid climate, which means hot summers and cold winters. The plains receive an average of 13 inches (330 mm) of rain each year, and they are susceptible to drought and flood cycles. Frost or freezing weather occurs more than 200 days a year, yet there is little yearly snowfall. Montana's notoriously cold January temperatures, which average in the upper 10s Fahrenheit (approximately 8 degrees Celsius), are occasionally interrupted by the chinook, a mild winter breeze that sweeps across the plains near the foot of the Rockies.

The climates of Montana's Rocky Mountains are divided into rising elevational zones, each with its own distinct climate. The driest valley bottoms have a climate similar to eastern Montana's, which is a good comparison. The climates of the other zones get colder, wetter, and snowier as the height rises.

Economy of Montana

This year's estimate by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis put Montana's gross state product at $51.91 billion (ranked 47th in the nation) and its average per capita income at $41,280 (37th in the nation).

In 2011, Montana was ranked third in the country in terms of the number of craft brewers per capita, making it a microbrewing hotbed. In addition to gold and coal, the state has silver, talc, and vermiculite in its mineral wealth. Timber and mineral extraction is a big business. Resource extraction is subject to a plethora of ecotaxes. As 453 US 609, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a severance tax on coal imposed by the state of Montana in 1974 that ranged between 20% and 30%. (1981).

There are almost ten million visitors to Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake, the Missouri River headwaters, the Battle of Little Bighorn site, and three of the five Yellowstone National Park entrances each year, which is a substantial economic contributor to these locations.

Tax rates in Montana range from 1 percent to 6.9 percent, with seven different tax levels. Home products are exempt from property taxes in Montana because there is no sales tax. In contrast to this, property taxes apply to a wide range of assets, including livestock, farm machinery and heavy equipment, cars and trucks, and business equipment. However, property taxes aren't just determined by the value of a property, but by other factors as well. Value is multiplied by a tax rate specified by the Montana legislature to determine the taxable value of property. In order to calculate the taxable value, local governments, school districts, and other taxing bodies apply a mill levy.

It became economically damaging to tourist-dependent areas in the 1980s, as residents' income and property taxes were insufficient to compensate for non-residential travel, notably road building, which had an enormous impact on the state's tourism industry. If more than half of a community's income comes from tourism, the Montana legislature adopted a law in 1985 that allows smaller cities and unincorporated communities with less than 2,500 persons to collect a resort tax. Hotels, motels, campgrounds, restaurants, food service establishments (including fast food stores), taverns and other public enterprises that offer alcohol, as well as destination ski areas and other recreational facilities are all subject to the resort tax.

Also included in this definition are "luxuries," which are defined by law as anything typically sold to the general public or to transient visitors or tourists, with the exception of food purchased unprepared or ungifted, medicine, medical supplies and services, appliances, hardware supplies and tools and any essentials for survival. Non-residents visited Montana in 2018 at the tune of 12.2 million, while the state's predicted population was only 1.06 million. Keeping roads and highways in good condition and protecting state parks is impossible without the resort tax that Montana imposes on non-residents who use state-funded services and infrastructure.

As of August 2021, the state's unemployment rate is 3.5%.