Uncovering America's Heritage... Coin by Coin

2007 Montana Quarter

Now, isn't this interesting!  Last time I chose a Coin of the Month (in June), I was out climbing a "fourteener" in Colorado, now here I am talking about Montana, the state whose name means "mountain"!

Well, Montana's got plenty of mountains, that's for sure, but plenty of plains too.  The Rockies run down the west side of the state and the Great Plains are in the east, just like the landforms you see below the bison skull on Montana's quarter.  And Montana's got rivers, wildlife...and loads of parks as well.  So parks are a big part of "Big Sky Country."

Some of the parks were created in places that Lewis and Clark and their crew visited and wrote about in their journals.  For instance, they saw a giant fountain, a 400-foot-high rock, the place where the three forks of the Missouri meet, and a rock that looked like the head of a swimming beaver.  All of these natural wonders are found today in Montana state parks.

With 50 state parks plus Glacier National Park and part of Yellowstone National Park, there's always lots to see and do under Montana's "Big Sky"!  You can read more about the bison skull and the state itself on Montana's quarter page.

—Goldie