Big Sky Blog

I missed posting this on the 26th but I think it’s interesting enough to post it a bit late. What do you think?

May 26, 1864

The territory of Montana is created when President Abraham Lincoln signs the legislation forming the new territory.
More than just a simple legislative act, the designation of what we now know as Montana has two key people from Ohio playing important roles. Sidney Edgerton, appointed as chief justice of Idaho Territory, effectively petitions Congress to designate the crest of the Bitterroot Range as the western boundary of Montana after spending the winter of 1863-64 at Bannack. In the early spring of 1864, Edgerton returns to Washington, D.C., to lobby his many friends in Congress for the creation of a new territory. Edgerton’s intent is to convince Congress that the Bitterroot Range is a significantly greater and more logical barrier than the Continental Divide. Powerful interests in the Idaho Territory want the Continental Divide to serve as the boundary between the two territories, but Edgerton prevails. The territory of Montana is created, and Edgerton is named first territorial governor.
A congressman from Ohio, James M. Ashley, is the man responsible for the name, Montana, based on an ancient Latin word, and now Spanish, meaning “mountainous.” Ashley appears to favor this word although his congressional colleagues suggest a number of Indian names. Ashley first brings up this name when Idaho Territory is formed a little over a year before Montana, but other congressmen prevail. In 1864, when debate begins about the new territory name, names such as Jefferson and Douglas are mentioned along with Indian names, but Congress cannot agree on these due to political partisanship. Ashley insists on Montana, and his persistence pays off.

From Montana Dateline by Ellis Roberts Parry

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