Aerial.America.S04E02.Montana
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00:00Montana. A place of big skies, big adventure, and big spirits.
00:13Here, giant glaciers carved out one of the world's most epic natural landscapes.
00:19And two of America's most legendary explorers faced towering walls of stone that inspired fear and awe.
00:31It's a land that holds untold treasures, rewarding those who dig deep.
00:37For men and machines searching for gold,
00:40to paleontologists who stumbled on the ancient bones that inspired a famous Jurassic tale.
00:51Montana from the air.
00:53It's a place that one of Hollywood's biggest stars calls home.
00:57A land of peaceful beauty, with rivers running through it,
01:02and wide open plains where America's fastest land mammals can simply run.
01:10It's a state of unexpected grace,
01:13but where a famous cavalry suffered one of the biggest defeats in U.S. military history.
01:19Soar across this state's big skies,
01:23where evidence of its hard-fought independence,
01:26breathtaking beauty,
01:28and awe-inspiring landmarks are best seen from above.
01:34Montana.
01:53In 1863, a group of men heading toward Bannock, Montana decided to camp here at a place called Alder Gulch.
02:21One of the men started panning for gold in a nearby creek,
02:25joking that maybe he'd get enough to buy a bit of tobacco.
02:28That creek turned out to be a gold mine.
02:32By 1900, Alder Gulch would give up a reported $90 million in gold,
02:38equal to about $45 billion today.
02:42Almost immediately, this town, Virginia City, was born.
02:47One of Montana's most infamous boom towns.
02:5010,000 people lived in and around Virginia City,
02:54which was also home to Montana's first public school,
02:57first newspaper,
02:59and first telegraph station.
03:01But all that wealth attracted danger.
03:04Bandits attacked stagecoaches,
03:06while thieves and murderers took advantage of the unsuspecting and the inebriated.
03:12Soon, a secret society of vigilantes took justice into their own hands.
03:18Troublemakers would wake up to find a mysterious sign painted on their cabin or tent,
03:23the numbers 3-7-77.
03:29Some say it meant the marked man had three hours, seven minutes, and 77 seconds to vacate the town.
03:36Others believe it marked the dimensions of their soon-to-be grave.
03:42These mysterious numbers live on today, on the shoulder patches of Montana's Highway Patrol.
03:51Although this boom town turned into a ghost town once the gold ran out,
03:55it's since been rebuilt and restored.
03:57Today, Virginia City is a living monument to Montana's wild and woolly days.
04:05Whether people come to Montana to make their fortune,
04:08or to simply treasure the great outdoors,
04:10it's a state filled with both beauty and bounty.
04:15But whether one treasures the landscape or finds treasure within it,
04:20Montana defies simple slogans.
04:24But that doesn't mean creative minds haven't tried.
04:27Native tribes, awed by the spectacle of the snow-covered Rockies,
04:30called it the Land of Shining Mountains.
04:34Those with a different shine in mind called it the Treasure State,
04:38due to its wealth of gold, silver, and copper.
04:42It was even dubbed the Stub-Toe State,
04:45perhaps a warning to all visitors to watch their step on Montana's rough terrain.
04:53But the slogan with staying power came about by accident.
04:57Montana writer A.B. Guthrie couldn't come up with a name for his own novel on fur traders
05:02until his father came to visit Montana and told his son,
05:06standing under the Big Sky, I feel free.
05:11Big Sky was ultimately the name of Guthrie's book,
05:15and Montana promoters knew a good thing when they heard it.
05:18The words Big Sky Country immediately stuck.
05:25And Montana never fails to live up to its motto.
05:28Big skies soar over the state's rich farmland and dry, rugged terrain.
05:33But there's also a place in Montana where land and sky meet.
05:40It's called the Rocky Mountain Front,
05:43where Montana's fertile plains collide with the Rocky Mountains.
05:47Like an aggravated ocean during a rough storm,
05:50the Rockies peak and dip, nearly reaching the clouds above.
05:55Then, unexpectedly, they take a dramatic plunge,
05:59racing down into the seemingly endless prairie.
06:06From the air, it can be a breathtaking sight.
06:09Jagged crevices and sharp cliffs looming over the grasslands,
06:13like a geologist's showcase of extremes.
06:17The close proximity of these two distinct ecosystems
06:20has created a remarkably beautiful landscape.
06:25In these pale, yellow grasslands, known as the American Serengeti,
06:30pronghorn antelope roam, just as they have for centuries.
06:39They are the fastest land mammals in North America,
06:42able to reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.
06:46They've been called the true marathoners of the American West.
06:50Each spring, these antelope migrate over 200 miles to Canada,
06:55making the return journey with the approach of winter.
06:59But when winter weather turns severe, that journey can turn tragic.
07:05Heavy rains in 2011 flooded the Missouri River,
07:08making it nearly impossible to cross.
07:11Yet the overwhelming urge to migrate
07:14drove some of the antelope to brave an attempt.
07:17Not all of them survived.
07:20Conservationists hope to make the antelope's migration easier
07:23by tearing down old fences and even building crossings over busy roads.
07:28By helping this species' arduous journey,
07:31they're also preserving one of the nation's most iconic sights,
07:35free-spirited animals roaming on the range.
07:41Montana owes many of its wildest spaces to conservationists,
07:45both past and present,
07:49including this dramatic spine of rock.
07:53It's been left wild thanks to Bob Marshall,
07:56who co-founded the Wilderness Society in 1935.
08:00While others saw the land as a bounty of potential natural resources,
08:05early activists like Bob Marshall
08:07saw that Montana's natural environments needed protection.
08:14This has been a long-running conflict in Montana,
08:17saving its natural beauty versus making a living.
08:22Today, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, or as hikers call it, the Bob,
08:27protects more than a million Montana acres,
08:30the third largest preservation in the lower 48.
08:34It's home to a spectacular formation known as the Chinese Wall,
08:39a 1,000-foot-high limestone cliff that stretches unbroken for more than 20 miles.
08:48But for legendary explorers headed west,
08:51Montana's rugged terrain came as a big surprise.
08:56In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
08:59set out on their journey to find the Northwest Passage,
09:03a fabled river that could take them directly to the Pacific Ocean.
09:07But as they traveled up the Missouri River, deep into Montana,
09:11the weary explorers came across this foreboding passage.
09:15Today, it's a reservoir, but at the time,
09:191,000-foot-high limestone walls towered above their boat, affecting Lewis deeply.
09:25In his diary, he wrote,
09:27The rocks approach the river on both sides,
09:29forming a most sublime and extraordinary spectacle.
09:33Nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks,
09:39which project over the river and menace us with destruction.
09:44Lewis named this gauntlet the Gates of the Mountains.
09:48He and Clark spent more time in Montana than in any other state.
09:53They were joined by a French-Canadian fur trader and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea.
10:01The explorers kept detailed notes on the region's plants and animals
10:05and on the ways of life of the indigenous people they encountered en route.
10:11But these diaries also reveal that they managed to miss
10:15one of Montana's most spectacular sights,
10:18an epic landscape carved and sculpted by massive glaciers.
10:25It lies south of the Canadian border, covers 1,600 square miles,
10:31and is known as Glacier National Park.
10:34It's home to some of the most awe-inspiring peaks in the lower 48.
10:39More than 70 million years ago,
10:41crashing tectonic plates first pushed up these mountains.
10:45More recently, during the last ice age, 10,000 years ago,
10:49giant glaciers carved out new valleys and formations as they passed.
10:54It's called Glacier National Park both for the 25 glaciers that still remain
11:00and for their behemoth forefathers, the ones that sculpted this incredible landscape.
11:07Evidence of their enormous power is everywhere.
11:11This rocky pinnacle called Ahorn was created when two glaciers
11:15slid along both sides of a single mountain,
11:18sculpting what lay in between into a spectacular peak.
11:23In 1885, a naturalist named George Byrd Grinnell visited Montana,
11:28fell in love with its glaciers,
11:30and decided he'd work to preserve the area as a national park
11:34so that mining tycoons didn't ruin its natural beauty.
11:39Far away in Montana, hidden from view by clustering mountain peaks, he later wrote,
11:44lies an unmapped northwestern corner, the crown of the continent.
11:51Grinnell worked tirelessly for years, and finally, in 1910,
11:55a quarter of a century after he first visited Montana,
11:59President William Howard Taft signed a bill to create Glacier National Park.
12:06Still, one wily tycoon succeeded in finding a way to cash in on this epic landscape.
12:13But he didn't do it with oil rigs or gold mines.
12:17He did it by tapping another great American resource, tourism.
12:25At the time, Americans were spending hundreds of millions of dollars
12:29traveling to Europe for vacation.
12:33Railroad magnate Lewis Warren Hill wanted to bring them to Montana instead,
12:38on his Great Northern Railway.
12:42So the railway helped promote Glacier National Park by calling it America's Switzerland,
12:48and with billboards that read, See America First.
12:54Once visitors arrived here and stepped off Hill's trains,
12:57they found comfortable Swiss-style lodgings.
13:02Many Glacier Hotel, named for the park's many glaciers, opened in 1915
13:08and promised Americans the full Swiss experience.
13:11From Alpine architecture to bellhops in Lederhosen,
13:15it still thrives today as an historic hotel.
13:20For those looking for a truly rustic experience, there were also the Sperry Chalets.
13:26These backcountry chalets can only be reached by hiking over six miles, or on horseback.
13:34When Glacier National Park was created, there were no roads high into the mountains,
13:39which made it difficult for most visitors to see many of its most remarkable sights.
13:45But building roads through these mountains turned out to be no easy feat.
13:51One of the most stunning and treacherous drives is this one, called Going to the Sun Road,
13:58named after a nearby mountain.
14:02It took nearly 20 years to design and build.
14:06Workers used hundreds of tons of explosives to blast out stretches of this 50-mile-long roadway.
14:13It twists, it turns, and is not for the faint of heart.
14:19And if it looks familiar, that's because it's in the opening scene of the film The Shining,
14:24when a character played by actor Jack Nicholson drives his family Volkswagen
14:28toward his ill-fated job as caretaker at the fictional Overlook Hotel.
14:36But many of the sights that visitors come to Glacier National Park to see may not be around for long.
14:43Some scientists believe that the park's glaciers will all be gone by the year 2020.
14:51Thousands of plants and animals that depend on the water sources created by the glaciers
14:56may also soon suffer the consequences.
14:59And much of the park's iconic beauty, from its cascading waterfalls to its peaks flanked in green,
15:07could soon disappear.
15:09But melting glaciers also feed this area's many lakes.
15:14And legend has it that deep within one of them lies a terrifying creature.
15:25Montana's Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.
15:30It covers 200 square miles and is thought to have been created by a freakishly large piece of ice
15:37that outlasted the Ice Age.
15:39When it finally did get around to melting a few centuries later,
15:43it had already hollowed out a basin that became the lake.
15:46But there's something else freakish about this lake.
15:49Locals whisper about a monster here, one that rivals the Loch Ness.
15:55According to eyewitness accounts, the Flathead Lake monster has an eel-like body
16:01and, some say, a head shaped like a bowling ball.
16:06But legend has it that the monster was first spotted by a steamer crew in the 19th century.
16:12The mystery seemed to have been solved in the 1950s
16:15when a man claimed he caught a giant, nearly 200-pound sturgeon in the lake.
16:21That is, until a biologist at the University of Montana in Missoula cut open its stomach
16:26and, thanks to undigested food still inside, determined that it couldn't have come from Flathead Lake.
16:35But they're not busy investigating monsters.
16:38The faculty and students at the University of Montana are pursuing their studies on a campus
16:42that's been called Rocky Mountain, Berkeley.
16:46The 200-acre campus is located in Missoula, Montana's second largest city.
16:52Home to more than 68,000 people, this college town lies at 3,200 feet.
16:59The Grizzly Bear marks the center of the stadium, in the field and in spirit.
17:05The Montana Grizzlies are considered one of the best teams in Division I football.
17:10They've been to the national playoffs for 17 consecutive years,
17:14winning the national championship in 1995 and 2001.
17:19Every year, they play in the Brawl of the Wild,
17:22a longstanding rivalry against Montana State University in Bozeman.
17:27The Grizz have won 68 of 108 games, making life for their rivals unbearable.
17:36Over it all, an M marks the spot.
17:40It was once freshman tradition to hike up the zigzag trail every year to weed and whitewash the granite M.
17:47But by the 60s, freshmen were more interested in other activities.
17:51So the university made the M more permanent and maintenance-free with cement.
17:59The M also overlooks the town of Missoula, which started off as a trading post,
18:05but with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883, began to thrive.
18:10Lumber and other mills were the backbone of Missoula's economy for years.
18:14Director David Lynch, who was born in Missoula,
18:17admits that he may have had Montana's small towns in mind when he created his hit drama series, Twin Peaks.
18:27The name Missoula comes from a Salish Indian word that means near the cold, chilling waters.
18:33And indeed, there is something chilling just outside of town at a place called Hell Gate.
18:39It's a narrow canyon, deep between two towering mountains, and was once a terrifying place of ambush.
18:46Salish Indians and other tribes on their way to hunt bison relied on this route.
18:51But when they returned with their haul, enemy tribes were sometimes lying in wait, weapons in hand.
18:58Human bones soon lined the passage, and the sight of them chilled fur traders
19:03as they too passed through this harrowing canyon with fear.
19:07But today, the only thing to fear at Hell Gate Canyon is a hole in your inner tube, or running out of beer.
19:17From its rivers to the Rockies, Montana is a place that's wild at heart, and nearly impossible to tame.
19:24But that doesn't mean some don't try.
19:27The Montana State Fair has been around longer than Montana has been a state.
19:31It began in 1870 and is still going strong.
19:39One of the main attractions here in cattle country is the Big Sky Pro Rodeo Roundup,
19:44a sport that reaches deep into Montana's cowboy history.
19:48The name of the game in this sizeable arena is the Big Sky Pro Rodeo Roundup.
19:54It may not seem very long, until you try.
20:00While these horses might look wild, they're here to get judged, too.
20:04In fact, half the score is based on the horse's bucking action,
20:07how high he jumps, how fast he spins, and how hard he lands.
20:13Although they may not be the fastest horses in Montana's history,
20:17how high he jumps, how fast he spins, and how hard he lands.
20:23Although this competition is now purely for sport,
20:26saddle bronc riding, and virtually all rodeo events,
20:29played a key role in the making of Montana's ranch culture.
20:38Breaking in wild horses and keeping rogue cattle in line was a serious, and often deadly, endeavor.
20:45This tradition calls back to one of Montana's most defining yet dangerous industries, cattle ranches.
20:52When cattlemen from Texas came across Montana,
20:55they were surely awed by the area's sheer beauty, but also its grazing potential.
21:01Seemingly endless acres of lush, sweet grass made this the perfect place to keep cattle well-fed.
21:08This was the open range.
21:11There were no fences, no corrals, just a brand on their rump and miles and miles to roam.
21:22But cattle weren't the first creatures to roam these parts.
21:25Montana has long been home to deer, elk, and bison.
21:32Just as cowboys corralled cattle with horses,
21:35Native Americans had their own ways to control bison, using rocks, spears, and the landscape itself.
21:43In the northern plains of Montana, the Blackfeet and other tribes used a rugged cliff for hunting.
21:53First, native hunters built two rows of piled rocks and brush,
21:57creating a drive lane that led towards the cliff.
22:00Then, when a herd of bison were found grazing in the area,
22:04hunters jumped out from behind the rock piles to scare the bison and herd them through the drive lane,
22:10until the beasts plunged right off the cliff.
22:15With arrows, clubs, and spears, hunters, waiting below, finished off the injured bison.
22:21This bounty provided food and hides for the tribes.
22:30But Montana's once plentiful bison were nearly driven into extinction,
22:35not by native hunters, but by white settlers.
22:40Settlers slaughtered bison for fun, and for their meat,
22:44and especially for their tongues, once considered a culinary treat.
22:49Today, bison have their own home to roam,
22:52in the 18,000-acre National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge.
22:57Media mogul Ted Turner has also gotten into the act.
23:01His ranches in Montana and New Mexico are now home to nearly 55,000 bison.
23:10Whether it's grazing, hunting, or even mining,
23:13Montana is a state rich with natural resources.
23:17But battles over the rights to these resources have led to conflict, and even war.
23:27These golden Montana hills were once covered in blood.
23:32They mark the site of one of the most crushing defeats in U.S. military history,
23:37a battle known as Custer's Last Stand.
23:41It began with a vision during a Sundance ceremony in the spring of 1876.
23:47In it, Chief Sitting Bull saw American soldiers falling from the sky, upside down,
23:53and prophesized a great victory for his Lakota tribe over the U.S. Army.
23:58The whites want war, he said, and we will give it to them.
24:03A few years before, the U.S. government had discovered gold in the nearby Black Hills,
24:09and wanted the tribes to sell their land.
24:12When they refused, the U.S. government was determined to round them up
24:16and move them to the Great Sioux Reservation, in what was then Dakota Territory.
24:22In 1876, General Alfred Terry set out with 879 men to force them to surrender.
24:29Members of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes gathered here at Little Bighorn River,
24:35ready to defend their home and hunting ground.
24:38When he found signs of a large tribal encampment, the general divided his troops.
24:43He ordered Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry
24:49to flank the Lakota and Cheyenne from the south,
24:52to keep them from escaping the larger military attack from the north.
24:56But soon after, Custer heard that his troops had been spotted.
25:00Afraid that the tribes would scatter before the rest of the army arrived,
25:04he decided to attack, even though he had no backup.
25:09Custer divided his cavalry into three battalions,
25:14while his own battalion of 210 men headed north.
25:19He was hoping he could surround and force the tribes into submission.
25:26But Custer's plan was about to go horribly wrong.
25:32Little is known about what happened next,
25:35but it's believed that hundreds of Cheyenne and Lakota quickly overwhelmed Custer's troops.
25:44Many were killed as native warriors pursued them across these dry hills.
25:50Custer and the other survivors in his battalion finally fled to a site now known as Last Stand Hill.
25:57By then, just 40 to 50 of the original 210 remained.
26:02But little did these survivors know,
26:04another native fighting force was approaching the hill from the opposite direction.
26:09Custer and his men came under attack.
26:12Some managed to break free and escape down the hill, but they didn't get far.
26:17More native warriors were coming up from the river.
26:21It was in this ravine that the last of Custer's men met their fate,
26:26taken down by clubs, arrows and bullets.
26:30Not a single one survived.
26:33Colonel Custer was found near the top of Last Stand Hill,
26:37with a shot to his head and one to his chest.
26:40Legend has it that Lakota warrior Crazy Horse personally killed Custer,
26:46but no one knows for sure.
26:48Historians believe that the Battle of Little Bighorn lasted about an hour.
26:53Not a single one of the soldiers in Custer's battalion lived to tell the tale.
26:58Today, a granite monument stands on the site where Custer and the last of his men were surrounded.
27:05Most of the soldiers were buried where they fell.
27:08Today, their marble gravestone still dot the landscape in small groups,
27:14revealing their frenzied attempt to retreat from certain death.
27:19The soldiers' bodies were later moved nearby to Custer National Cemetery.
27:24But while this site may bear his name, Custer's own body was finally laid to rest at West Point.
27:32Little Bighorn was declared a national cemetery in 1879,
27:37and later preserved as a national monument in 1940.
27:41It's estimated that at least 80 Native Americans died during the battle.
27:46A memorial by a Native artist marks their loss.
27:51The Lakota and Cheyenne may have won the battle, but ultimately they lost the war.
27:57The United States succeeded in forcing the tribes into reservations,
28:01and settlers soon moved in to claim the land for themselves.
28:06Events at Little Bighorn helped pave the way for Montana becoming a state in 1889.
28:12But the fight for the region's resources was just beginning.
28:18One of Montana's epic power struggles took place here, in Helena.
28:24When Montana became a state, a now historic fight broke out over what city should be named the new capital.
28:30Mining magnate William Clark wanted it to be his town, Helena.
28:35But his rival, Copper King Marcus Daly, rallied for Anaconda, a mining town near Butte.
28:41Both men knew that winning the state capital could bring power and financial security to their towns and businesses.
28:49Combined, the two tycoons spent an estimated $3 million in their campaign to win voters,
28:55and both reportedly gave away whiskey in the streets and handed out gold coins on voting day.
29:01But at the end of a bitter battle, Helena won the title.
29:06Montana's capital building was completed in 1902, with its crowning touch, a statue called Goddess of Liberty.
29:15But her true identity remains a mystery to this day.
29:19The statue mysteriously arrived by train, with no records and no description.
29:25Everyone agreed she was perfect for the capital's copper dome, and today she continues her reign.
29:32Another woman later made history beneath the dome.
29:36In 1916, Montana's Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress.
29:43But Helena's most famous icon isn't a person and isn't a statue.
29:49It stands just outside the capital.
29:52It's this old wooden structure known as the Guardian of the Gulch.
29:58After Helena nearly burnt to the ground in 1876,
30:02wooden watchtowers like this were built to serve as lookouts for any fires, which helped Helena to flourish.
30:09By 1888, 50 millionaires lived here, more per capita than in any other city in the world.
30:16And today, the money still flows in Helena.
30:20Smart budgeting has made Montana one of the only states to actually have a surplus.
30:25In 2011, that surplus was $433 million.
30:30According to Governor Brian Schweitzer, it's because they run the state like a ranch,
30:36and cutting out what doesn't work.
30:39But what does work in Montana is mining.
30:44There's a treasure trove of valuable minerals under this state.
30:49Today, there are several hundred mines in operation, generating revenues in the billions.
30:55And in Montana, one town stands out as a miner's town through and through, a place called Anaconda.
31:05The smelter stack of the Anaconda Copper Company dominates the town's landscape in more ways than one.
31:11It's so big that the entire Washington Monument could fit inside this 585-foot-tall chimney.
31:19But it wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for one of Montana's savviest entrepreneurs.
31:26In 1880, a businessman named Marcus Daly purchased a mine nearby for $30,000.
31:34He thought it would produce silver, but it soon struck one of the largest copper veins in history.
31:41Some say Daly kept his find a secret and then complained that he'd been swindled
31:47so he could drive down the prices of the other mines in the area.
31:51He then quietly set about buying up those mines for cheap.
31:56When the demand for copper later skyrocketed, Daly cashed in.
32:04But the pursuit for mineral wealth in Montana also comes at a terrible price.
32:09In the 1950s, the Anaconda Copper Company began strip mining, blowing up entire hills to get to the metals.
32:18This mine, known as Berkeley Pit, produced almost 300 million tons of copper ore.
32:24But when it was shut down in 1982, it left behind this.
32:30A giant 40-billion-gallon lake filled with highly acidic toxic water,
32:36containing high levels of arsenic, aluminum, and zinc.
32:40In 1995, a flock of snow geese landed on the lake, and within days, more than 300 of them were found dead.
32:48Residents in the area worry about the pit's long-term effects.
32:52It's been reported that cancer deaths are higher in Butte than the national average.
32:58But there might be a silver lining to this stripped-out wasteland.
33:03Montana researchers are investigating mutated organisms from the pit
33:08that may be producing compounds useful in the fight against cancer.
33:13And high above this pit stands one man's decidedly divine tribute to his wife's survival with cancer.
33:21Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot-high cast concrete statue, second only in size to the Statue of Liberty.
33:29It began when a man named Babel Bill prayed, promising the Virgin Mary that he'd build a statue of his wife Joyce recovered from cancer.
33:38She did, and so Bill got to work.
33:41Volunteers poured in to help with skills and materials.
33:44They labored for six years and ended up creating this towering tribute.
33:49The Army's National Guard helped airlift it to its overlook here in the Rockies.
33:54Our Lady of the Rockies is a tribute to women and mothers everywhere.
34:00Closer to the ground is another sign of rebirth for this mine, one designed by none other than golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
34:09The Old Works Golf Course is the only one in the world built on top of a Superfund site.
34:15Some of the former strip mine lives on here.
34:18The hazards on the course are made with black slag, a byproduct from copper smelting.
34:26Golfers come from all around to hit the greens on this course that costs more than $40 million to complete.
34:35Outside of the sand traps, Montana's open pits are in decline.
34:40But with vast quantities of valuable ore buried under this state, mining continues to thrive here.
34:47At the Golden Sunlight Mine, 25 miles east of Butte, men and giant machines still search for gold, hoping to strike it rich,
34:56just as prospectors did with their pickaxes and shovels more than a century ago.
35:02But gold and copper aren't the only treasures hidden under Montana's soil.
35:09In 1978, a rock shop owner scouring this rocky mountainside found something that she couldn't quite explain.
35:22A collection of tiny bones.
35:25It didn't take long for a local paleontologist, Dr. Jack Horner, to suspect they were onto something extraordinary.
35:33The bones looked like they could have belonged to a bird.
35:38But he soon realized that they were the skeletal remains of an entirely new species of dinosaur.
35:45They also uncovered fossils of eggs resting in nests alongside adult dinosaur skeletons.
35:52This discovery led to a breakout theory, that these terrible lizards may actually have cared for their young.
36:01So, they named this duck-billed dinosaur Myasaura, the good mother reptile.
36:07They named the area Egg Mountain, and Dr. Horner went on to become the inspiration for the lead character in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film, Jurassic Park.
36:18Today, the Myasaura bones and other dinosaur fossils from across Montana are finding new life here, at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.
36:28It's home to the world's largest Tyrannosaurus rex skull ever discovered, and more T. rex bones than any other museum in the world.
36:38The museum is located on the campus of Montana State University.
36:43The school got its start with agricultural studies, but has since blossomed with prominent work in science, engineering, and especially natural history.
36:54The Montana State Bobcats pounce on their competition here, at Bobcat Stadium.
37:04Every year, the fur flies at the Brawl of the Wild, where the cats face off with their historic rivals, the University of Montana's Grizzlies.
37:13This matchup began in 1897, making it one of the oldest college football rivalries west of the Mississippi.
37:20It's also known as the Cat-Grizz Game, or the Grizz-Cat Game, depending on which school fan is talking.
37:31After the game, fans and foes alike can make peace over a beer in Bozeman.
37:36When students aren't hitting the books, some of them are hitting the trails.
37:42With mountains, rivers, even Yellowstone nearby, Bozeman is a popular town for anyone who'd rather be skiing, swimming, or just taking a stroll.
37:52But it was one quiet sport that broke out to make Montana's rivers a must-see destination, with a little Hollywood help from Brad Pitt.
38:02Just as rivers twist, weave, and wind their way through Montana, so do its roads and highways.
38:08And for a while, both were free and unfettered.
38:12For years, Montana's highways had no set speed limit.
38:16Known as the Montana Bond, cars often zoomed well over 100 miles per hour.
38:22But that joyride came to a screeching halt in 1999, when the Montana State Bobcats,
38:29But that joyride came to a screeching halt in 1996, when rancher Rudy Stanko was pulled over in his Camaro and given a ticket for going 85 miles per hour.
38:39Stanko fought the law and won, but the Montana Supreme Court also ruled that to have no posted speed is too vague and impossible to enforce.
38:49So, to the disappointment of dragsters everywhere, Montana's speeds were set at 75 miles an hour, and the last limitless road in America came to an end.
38:59This highway, Interstate 90, crosses the Continental Divide.
39:04And 200 years ago, Montana's most famous explorers looked for a similar shortcut.
39:11By 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition had been traveling upstream on the Missouri River, using ropes to tow dugout canoes filled with their supplies.
39:22But when they arrived here, at the headwaters where the Missouri splits into three distinct rivers, they faced a baffling decision.
39:31Which river would take them to the fabled Northwest Passage?
39:37Afraid of choosing the wrong river, men were sent to scout each one.
39:42The explorers finally chose the westernmost river, and did it the honor of naming it after their president and benefactor, Thomas Jefferson.
39:52But the Jefferson River turned out to be a rough ride.
39:56The team had to drag their canoes upstream against swift currents or lug them over rugged rocks when the water got too shallow.
40:03But Montana's rivers haven't always been so unkind.
40:07Over the years, they've provided plentiful food, fresh water, and today, one of the state's most iconic sports, fly fishing.
40:20And there's no more famous fishing grounds in Montana than this one, the Blackfoot River, which twists and winds for 132 miles through the state.
40:30This picturesque river was the inspiration for the novel and film, A River Runs Through It, starring Brad Pitt and directed by Robert Redford.
40:40It's the story of two brothers who take separate paths in life, yet remain united by their deep love of fly fishing.
40:48Since the film's release in 1992, Montana's Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers have become major destinations for fly fishers everywhere.
40:58Before heading out in their waders, many prefer to make the pilgrimage to Livingston, the fly fishing capital of the world.
41:05This sport requires the perfectly tied fly.
41:09Whether it's thread, feathers, beads, or yarn, all made to resemble tiny, tasty airborne bugs that can lure the fish.
41:19Dan Bailey's famous fly shop carries some of the most respected and innovative flies in the world.
41:25From the mossback nymph to the marabou muddler.
41:29And in a town filled with big fish tales, there's one that overshadows the rest, quite literally.
41:36Although its origin is a bit of a mystery, many believe that this giant fish was created in the late 40s to promote the annual trout derby.
41:45Although it began as a trading post along the Yellowstone River, Livingston really took off when the railroad arrived in 1882.
41:55In this tucked away ranch just outside of town, actor Peter Fonda has found a homestead away from Hollywood.
42:02Beneath the blue spruce trees, it's an easygoing lifestyle for the star of Easy Rider.
42:08Peter and his wife Becky live here year-round and tend to their crops of hay, barley, rye, and apples.
42:16Whether it's a family ranch or a commercial enterprise, Montana's high, arid plains provide the perfect climate for grains, especially wheat.
42:26It's Montana's number one crop, bringing in more than a billion dollars a year.
42:31After wheat, hay, and barley are Montana's biggest moneymakers.
42:37In July, green harvesters carve out a more terrestrial form of crop circles when they harvest another thriving Montana crop.
42:47These rows of cut alfalfa will soon be baled for livestock.
42:54About 66% of Montana's total land is dedicated to farming in one form or another.
43:04And whether Montanans are living on the farm or downtown, one thing's for sure, there's a lot of space to go around.
43:12To be exact, there's about 94 acres per person.
43:17If they ever choose to divvy it up, most of Montana's cities have sprung up near natural resources.
43:25Missoula began as a trading post by a river.
43:29Great Falls got its start as a potential site for hydroelectric power.
43:34Helena and Bozeman boomed thanks to nearby gold claims, while Butte nearly exploded with the copper industry.
43:42And then there's Billings, Montana's biggest city, population over 100,000, and still growing.
43:50It began as a railroad hub in 1882, and was even named after the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Frederick Billings.
44:03Mapped out in a no-nonsense grid, the city was a cow town in the 1880s.
44:09The city was a cow town in the 1880s, and later became a major hub for wool.
44:15But business boomed in 1915, when oil was discovered south of town.
44:21Then, with the economic boom after World War II and through the 1950s, the city nearly burst its britches with a 66% growth rate.
44:30When the gas crisis hit in 1973, Montana's oil businesses exploded.
44:39But this area is better known for some very famous graffiti.
44:46Outside of town, on the edge of the Yellowstone River, stands an impressive rock formation known as Pompey's Pillar.
44:54A wooden staircase winds its way up this sandstone mesa, leading curious visitors to a spot beneath a rock ledge,
45:01and the only physical evidence left by the Lewis and Clark expedition on their historic route.
45:07William Clark clambered up to this spot and carved his name on the rock face, with the date July 25, 1806.
45:16Clark named the mesa Pompey's Pillar, in honor of his guide Sacagawea's baby boy.
45:24There's a reason why William Clark may have chosen to leave his name here, of all places in their travels across the country.
45:31Because others already had.
45:34Native American petroglyphs also cover this rock face. Some believe these markings may go back as far as 2,000 years.
45:44In one form or another, Montana has inspired artists and writers through the centuries.
45:51More recently, filmmakers are creating their most mesmerizing movies here, Under the Big Skies.
45:58And one film about a troubled family, a troubled horse, and the horse whisperer who brings them together, made a movie star out of Montana.
46:11With its wide open plains rolling toward distant horizons, and epic skies that seem to go on forever, Montana is a place where nature seems to know no bounds.
46:24In many ways, the story of Montana is the story of people learning to live harmoniously with their natural environment, and in some cases, even communicate with its creatures.
46:35It took a best-selling book, and later a major Hollywood film, to capture that story and share it with the world.
46:43Tucked away among these trees is one of Montana's most famous movie icons, a ranch house, where Robert Redford directed and starred in The Horse Whisperer.
46:53Redford and his team scouted nearly 100 locations, but when they came across this stately ranch outside of Livingston, they knew the search was over.
47:04The film crew built another house, where Scarlett Johansson's character and family lived.
47:09Set designers also added a horse pen, where Tom Booker, Redford's character, worked with troubled horses.
47:17While filming here, Redford realized they didn't need special filters and effects.
47:23He said, the truth is that the real West is pretty powerful and quite beautiful just the way it is.
47:30The film helped reinforce the archetype of Montana that lives on today, as a place where men and women can reconnect with nature.
47:39And rediscover themselves in the process.
47:45Yet for some here, nature itself is part of their ancestry.
47:53The Salish and Kootenai tribes of Northwest Montana see the land itself as sacred, and something that needs to be protected.
48:01Especially pristine areas like this, the cascading Mission Falls.
48:07Part of the Mission Mountains Wilderness Complex of the Northern Rockies, glacial water cascades down this rugged alpine slope for nearly 1,000 feet.
48:17This 90,000 acre tribal wilderness area is the only one in the country to be established by the tribes themselves.
48:24For, in the words of the Salish Indians, the earth is our historian. It is made of our ancestors' bones.
48:33But no matter who watches over this land, nothing can stop nature's destructive powers.
48:41Especially in densely wooded areas like this, near Butte.
48:46When whipping winds, combined with severe drought conditions, one bolt of lightning can turn these trees into tinder, ready to ignite.
48:55And in Western Montana, lightning can strike up to 3,500 times in a single day.
49:02A lightning strike caused this fire to ignite. These small flames may not seem like much now.
49:09But when fires like this one go unchecked, they can start to roar and cause tens of thousands of acres to go up in smoke.
49:17Putting out fires in remote, hard-to-reach locations like this one requires an elite team of firefighters.
49:24Those willing to parachute right onto the blazing front lines.
49:28These are the smokejumpers of Montana.
49:32When the call comes in, these specially trained firefighters load up supplies and then head out for what could be a long battle.
49:41When they're not on the front lines, smokejumpers stay here, at the Montana Aerial Fire Depot in Missoula.
49:48They'll spend their time keeping in top-notch physical shape that could mean the difference between life and death when they're out battling the flames.
49:55These smokejumpers can get called to go nearly anywhere in the nation, but they'll always call Montana home.
50:03Just as the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho have for centuries.
50:08From the jagged spine of its rocky mountain front to the lush fields of its fertile plains, Montana is a state forged by resilience and hard-won character.
50:20It's a land where fortunes have been won and battles sometimes lost.
50:26Throughout it all, the people of Montana have always found ways to thrive under this state's big skies.
50:49For more UN videos visit www.un.org