Every Lake
Montana
The Rocky Mountain Front, where the plains end in a wall — and the Missouri begins at Three Forks.
Montana in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Montana.
About Montana
Montana is two countries on one board. The western third is mountains, range after range along the Continental Divide, which follows the Bitterroot crest to make the border with Idaho — the only state line in the country drawn along a mountain divide. The eastern two-thirds are Great Plains, cut by the Yellowstone and the Missouri and broken by isolated island ranges. The Missouri River begins at Three Forks where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin meet, and the Yellowstone runs 692 miles to join it as the longest undammed river in the lower 48. Fifty-six counties.
Montana entered on November 8, 1889 as the 41st state, in the same rush of admissions as the Dakotas and Washington. Helena, a gold camp that started at Last Chance Gulch, beat Anaconda in a hard-fought capital election in 1894 that the copper barons paid for on both sides. The board is worth hanging for Glacier National Park in the northwest corner, the Going-to-the-Sun Road crossing it at Logan Pass, and I-90 and I-94 running the long way east.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 9 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
