Montana, Our Home
Why Is Montana Called the Last Best Place?The History Behind the Name and Why We Call It Home
Montana is called the Last Best Place because the name captures a feeling: that its open landscapes, close connections to the land and distinctive communities are worth holding on to. It is an expression of affection and belonging, not a ranking that can be measured or a claim that Montana was the last state to join the country.
The words became widely associated with Montana through a collection of its writing. The attachment behind them reaches much further back, into the lives, cultures and work that shaped the state. For us at The Hi-Line Co., understanding that distinction is part of understanding why we love living and building here.
A name carried by stories
Where Did "The Last Best Place" Come From?
A major turning point came in 1988, with the publication of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, edited by William Kittredge and Annick Smith and published by the Montana Historical Society Press. The Montana Historical Society traces the nickname’s spread to that collection and credits Kittredge with choosing its title.
The book gathered many voices rather than presenting one version of Montana. Its selections ranged across Native traditions, exploration, mining, ranching, agriculture and small-town life. That breadth matters: the Montana behind the title was a place of people and stories, not only scenery.
As the title became familiar, the words took on a life beyond the book. They gave people a memorable way to describe an attachment they already felt. The book helped turn a literary title into a shared way of talking about Montana.
We hear both affection and a question in the phrase. The affection says, “This place matters to us.” The question asks what we are willing to do to keep it that way.
The history is older than the nickname
Montana's Heritage Has More Than One Starting Point
Indigenous homelands and living cultures
Long before Montana had a state boundary or an English-language nickname, Indigenous peoples had enduring relationships with this land. Their histories did not end when ranches, railroads or towns appeared. Tribal nations remain part of Montana’s present, with their own governments, languages, cultural traditions and accounts of home.
The Montana Historical Society’s work with Tribal partners emphasizes that Indigenous peoples are the authorities on their own histories. That is an important starting point for any conversation about Montana heritage. The state was never an empty landscape waiting for someone else to give it meaning.
A working state shaped over generations
The gold rushes of the 1860s, the growth of cattle ranching, the arrival of railroads and later homesteading all changed Montana. Mining communities needed supplies and food; ranches and farms connected the land to livelihoods; rail lines tied towns to distant markets.
Montana became a territory in 1864 and entered the Union on November 8, 1889, as the 41st state. Those dates explain its political history, not the beginning of life here. Settlement also brought dispossession and conflict for Indigenous communities, while drought and economic downturns later challenged many farming families.
That is why we see Montana’s lineage as more than a collection of pioneer stories. It includes persistence and reinvention, but also loss and difficult change. Loving the state does not require simplifying its past.
More than a mountain postcard
Why the Name Fits More Than One Part of Montana
Montana’s appeal is not confined to its most photographed mountain valleys. The plains, agricultural country, river corridors and small communities belong in the picture, too. A stretch of prairie can feel just as deeply like home as a forested ridge.
Space that lets the landscape set the scale
There is a particular feeling in a broad horizon: room to see weather coming, to notice a river’s course or to watch the light change across a field. That sense of scale is one reason the nickname resonates with us. Montana reminds us that the landscape is larger than whatever occupies our attention that day.
Working country, not just a scenic backdrop
A hayfield, a grain elevator, an old storefront and a ranch fence are reminders that people make their lives here. Montana’s working landscapes carry their own beauty. They also carry the effort required to maintain a home, earn a living and keep a community going.
The northern country associated with the Hi-Line is part of that larger story. Its place in Montana’s identity is not secondary to the mountains. Neither is the experience of the people who live and work there.
A sense of place built through everyday life
The view may be the first thing someone notices. Belonging develops through ordinary life: learning the seasons, recognizing familiar places, getting to know people and becoming someone others can count on. To us, those connections give the words “Last Best Place” their depth.
What home means to us
Why We Love Living Here
As multigenerational Montanans, we carry a connection that began before our business did. We love the way the outdoors remains part of everyday life: the changing light, the working fields, the space beyond town and the familiar landscape on an ordinary drive. It does not have to be a special occasion to remind us where we are.
We also value the expectations that come with belonging somewhere. Keep your word. Take care of what you use. Recognize that your decisions affect people you may see again tomorrow. Those are not qualities exclusive to Montana, but they are part of what our Montana upbringing means to us.
Loving a place is not the same as pretending it is easy or perfect. For us, the attachment is deeper than a good-weather visit. It is a willingness to stay involved in the everyday work of living here.
Our family roots are one way of knowing Montana, not the only way. Someone who arrives later can build a meaningful connection through respect, curiosity and participation. Deep roots should make us more responsible neighbors, not less welcoming ones.
Living here and building here
What That Connection Means for The Hi-Line Co.
The Hi-Line Co. began in 2020, with our first dispensary in Ronan and cultivation operations in Conrad. Our company origin story is rooted in a desire to build something locally accountable and durable. Montana was not a backdrop selected to give the business a certain look. It was home.
That is the connection between the Last Best Place and the company we want to build. We want our work to earn trust here, our decisions to make sense beyond the next opportunity, and our growth to remain connected to the people and places around us.
A Montana identity on a sign is only a beginning. For us, the more important question is whether our conduct lives up to it. Clear information, thoughtful work and responsibility for the result are standards we can keep returning to.
We do not see living here and building here as separate ambitions. They are parts of the same commitment: to make a life in Montana and contribute something worth keeping.
A name to carry forward
Keeping the Last Best Place Worth Passing On
We do not read “last” as an instruction to freeze Montana in time. Communities need room to live, work, adapt and build a future. The challenge is to make those changes without losing sight of the land, histories and relationships that give a place its character.
For us, that means respecting the landscape, making room for different Montana stories and remembering that a place is not preserved by admiration alone. It is cared for through decisions, including the small ones made every day.
The Last Best Place is not something we can claim once. It is something we have to keep caring for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Montana and the Last Best Place
