Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-08-18
By ELMO
THE TREASURE STATE

more stepped in antiquity
than any other state in the union.
And no other state has a name
that is more descriptive of its top
ography than does Montana. Yet,
no name ever proposed for a ter
ritory was kicked around the halls
of congress so indifferently as was
the name montana" In a period
when the creation of new terri
tories in the great undeveloped
western country was a frequent duty
OF congress, many names were imme-
diately accepted without question. The
given to at least two other territories
before 1t was given to the present
Treasure state.
Perhaps the very age of the word
Montana was against its acceptance
at the start. For congressman rs and
politicians and as little the scholars,
on the average, as they are today
Way back in the years before Christ
came to the earth the Romans des-
tgnated as the Montani, or mountain
jewellers. the people who lived on the
great variation of .spellings, to meet
the technicalities of the Latin gram
mar. was used to designate any noun
famous region or the people who dwelt
therein. Pliny, Livy, Caesar and others
who wrote the history of ancient Rome
its variations that Montana" is part
Of classic literature.
"Mantanes' Indian Tribe
Rome in great degree was skillfu1
in imposing Illumination upon all
peoples who came under her rule.
fThr,c N that
the Roman legions under Augustus,
conquering the Iberians, or Basques, in
what is now Spain, imposed the Latin
Language. upon the, people. When in
later centuries the hold Of Rome was
present Castillian tongue.
Historians with Sieur de la Varen-
drye, who led the first expedition Of
white men to the Rocky mountains in
Montana in l743. wrote of the Man.
mantagnes mountains) about the
headwaters of the Missouri river.
The coat of arms of West Virginia,
admitted to the Union as state in
per Liberi-"Mountain Men Are Al
ways Freemen."
During the Spanish American war in
1898 Louis P. Sanders. first lieutenant
in the First Montana volunteer in
f Man r his RaGpe HseRa fd0m
few days ago what consider strange
coincidence. The last regiment to &C.
cupy the barracks in which we now
live was the Eighth Montana, a crack
most worthy successor in the First
Montana infantry, U. S. A."
Town in Colorado
The first modern use of Montana"
as a place name was in that part of
Kansas, now Colorado, where a town
was so named on Cherry creek west
of the present Denver. In 1858 party
of Georgians, seeking gold, located the
site and established a town. Josiah
Human. college graduate and no doubt
familiar with the Latin application of
Montana" suggested the he, name a; The
quantities, however, and the Georgians
moved to the site of Denver, and
Montana town faded out of the picture.
In 1860 a mining district in the
Clear creek section of Colorado was
called Montana.
Mrs. Montana Kantner, long resi-
dent of Deer Lodge, was born at Gold
en- Gate NOV Golden, Colo, March
%, 1860, and came to the northern
gold camps, Bannack and Virginia City,
tana was organized How she came to
be given the name Montana is not
known, but 1t may be assumed that
someone in the family was familiar
WIFI Tile bdlul VI lIlc WOlu
and the fact that in Latin the present
spelling is feminine gender; it has an
euphonious, musical sound on the
tongue. and since Montana became a
political unit, giving the name to the
many gfrl babies born here are en-.
dowed with the name Montana.
It is more than probable that the
idea of Montana" as a territorial
name was brought to Bannack and
goidseekers who deserted Pixies Peak
and Cherry creek. in Colorado, to try
their luck In the northern camps.
Certain it is that the first suggestion
Of the name in congress came as a
either either as a - place a name there or the
use Of the word by the Mexicans as
they drifted northward. The Spanish
designation Of the northern mountain
country WasIand EIMSntaLna del
As Territorial Name
James w. Denver, later general
in the Union army, was an early ter.
ritorial governor of Kansas. In that
capacity he visited the Cherry creek
area where rose the city szo which nc =, bears rs
Washington. Senator Stephen A:
Douglas, later to be an opponent Of
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency.
invited General Denver to his home,
ana II was mere tnat montana was
first conceived as a territorial name.
Denver" said Douglas, Il am going
to introduce bill to organize some
new territories. want you to give
me a name for one of them"
Denver suggested Colorado" Doug
las explained that he had that NINE
I want a name for this territory up
here" indicating the northern noun
tain region on q map.
Denver studied the map q moment
and said: why not call 1t Montana?"
He explained the word was Spanish,