Montana

III

Economic Activities

Montana’s economy traditionally has been based on its natural resources. Fertile soil in the eastern two-thirds of Montana supports agriculture. Other major economic activities—mining, tourism, and lumbering—take advantage of the state’s mineral deposits, scenic beauty, and forestlands. Most manufacturing is concerned with processing the state’s agricultural and forest products. Today, the service sector contributes the most value to Montana’s economy, accounting for three-quarters of the gross state product. The fastest-growing contributor to the state’s income in 1997 was construction.

Montana’s labor force in 2008 was 483,000 people. The largest share of them, 39 percent, worked in the services sector, doing such jobs as providing services to tourists or working in hospitals. Some 19 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 19 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 7 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing; 5 percent in manufacturing; 7 percent in construction; 14 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 21 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 2 percent in mining. In 2007, 14 percent of Montana’s workers were members of a labor union.

A

Agriculture

Cattle ranching was well established in Montana by the late 19th century and wheat farming on the prairies was expanding. But during the 1920s and 1930s drought and lowered prices dealt agriculture a serious setback. The completion of the Fort Peck Dam in 1940, which provided both irrigation and low-cost power, restored Montana’s agricultural economy.

The total number of farms and ranches has generally decreased in recent decades, while the size of the average unit has increased. The average size of Montana’s 29,500 farms and ranches in 2008 was 834 hectares (2,061 acres). Altogether there were 24.6 million hectares (60.8 million acres) of farmland in 2008, about two-thirds of the state’s total land area. Cropland occupied 19 percent of Montana’s land area, while rangeland and pasture accounted for another 51 percent.

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Wheat is Montana’s leading crop in terms of sales. Most of the high-quality wheat is grown in the plains section, with winter wheat being grown mainly in the area north of Great Falls and spring wheat in the area bordering Canada. In 1997 Montana ranked third among the states in wheat production, behind only North Dakota and Kansas.

Other important grain crops include barley and oats. In 1997 Montana trailed only one other state, North Dakota, in the production of barley, Montana’s third most valuable farm product. Hay was the fourth most valuable farm commodity and is grown throughout the state. Feed corn is raised in eastern Montana. Alfalfa, flaxseed, and mustard are also important crops.

Sugar beets are raised on irrigated lands around Billings and Sidney. Potatoes are grown in many parts of the state, and truck gardens near the larger towns supply part of the local need for vegetables. Beans are raised in large quantity near Billings. Cherry orchards are found in the Flathead Lake region, and apples are grown primarily in the valleys of western and south central Montana.

Cattle and calves play a central role in Montana’s farm economy and in 1997 were the second most valuable agricultural commodity. Beef cattle are raised in many parts of the state, while dairying is important in several western valleys. Some hogs are raised in the eastern areas. Montana raises a large number of sheep.

B

Forestry

Forest lands in Montana cover 27 percent of the state’s area. Commercial timber grows mainly in the mountainous west and supplies Montana’s chief industry, timber processing.

Most of the lumber produced is softwood. Major species include the ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, western white pine, spruce, lodgepole pine, and western larch. The forests provide wood pulp for paper, lumber for construction, mine timbers, telephone and telegraph poles, railroad ties, and fuel. Montana is also a major producer of Christmas trees, harvested both in the wild and on plantations.

C

Mining

Although gold was discovered in the 1850s, it was a successive series of placer gold strikes beginning in the 1860s that brought the first significant number of white settlers to Montana. Since then, mining has remained an important activity.

Fuel resources, including petroleum, coal, and natural gas, are largely found in eastern Montana. Metallic minerals, including copper, silver, gold, lead, zinc, and tungsten, are found mainly in the western mountains. Nonmetallic minerals, including sand and gravel, limestone, phosphates, bentonite, fluorite, vermiculite, and gemstones are widely distributed, although more are found in the central and western regions.

The extraction of fossil fuels provides the largest share of Montana’s mining income. By far the most valuable fossil fuel is coal, which accounted for one-half of the state’s total energy production value. The petroleum produced in 2006 amounted to 36.3 million barrels. Production of natural gas remains important and totaled 3.3 billion cu m (117 billion cu ft) in 2007. Petroleum and natural gas deposits are found in several areas of the plains region, including the Bell Creek field in southeastern Montana, the Pine and Pennel fields in eastern Montana, and the Cut Bank field in the northwestern corner of Great Plains Montana. The major coal mines, located in south central Montana, are surface strip-mining operations that produce low-sulfur coal used for coal-fired electricity generation, especially in states in the Midwest.

Metallic minerals provide the largest share of Montana’s nonfuel mining income, with copper and gold leading the list of important metals. Most of the state’s metallic mineral production comes from mines which began operation since the early 1980s. Such mines include those producing gold and silver located near Whitehall, east of Butte; at Jardine, north of Yellowstone National Park; and north of Lewistown. The state’s largest producer of precious metals is a mine in Stillwater County near Nye that extracts platinum, palladium, rhodium, and gold. Montana was the only U.S. state mining platinum and palladium in the late 1990s, and in the same period its production of zinc intensified. After several years of absence, copper mining began again in 1986 at the historic mining town of Butte. Other relatively large mines were in various development stages in the mid-1990s.

Portland cement is an important nonfuel mineral commodity. Montana leads the nation in the production of talc. Sand and gravel are obtained in all parts of the state. Phosphate rock is mined in several western and southwestern counties. Montana produces significant quantities of industrial-grade garnet.

D

Manufacturing

The principal manufactures in Montana are wood products, foodstuffs, printed matter, and electrical and electronic devices. In the late 1990s the lumber and wood products industry provided more than one-fourth of the state’s income from manufactures. Lumber industries are concentrated in the mountainous west, where most of the commercial timber grows. Four large sawmills are situated at Bonner, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Libby. There are many small sawmills. Wood products are made in Missoula, Frenchtown, Libby, Kalispell, Thompson Falls, Whitefish, and Bonner. Most of Montana’s lumber and wood products are sold in other states or exported to foreign countries.

Food-processing plants provide about one-tenth of the manufacturing income in Montana. The plants are widely distributed in the state. Flour mills are located in Billings and Great Falls. Billings and Sidney have sugar refineries. Vegetable and fruit canneries are situated in the Bitterroot Valley. There are dairies throughout the state. The printing and publishing houses provide another one-tenth of Montana’s manufacturing income.

Large-scale metals processing is limited to two facilities, both of which process mostly ores produced in other countries. At Columbia Falls an aluminum reduction facility converts alumina from Australia and other countries to aluminum ingots. In East Helena a lead smelter processes ores mostly from South America.

A number of other raw materials, especially building materials and fuels, are processed in Montana. Cement is produced at Trident and Montana City. Petroleum refineries are located in Billings, Laurel, and Great Falls.

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