Montana, the northernmost state in the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain region of the United States and the nation's fourth largest state. It is 559 miles (900 km) from east to west and 321 miles (517 km) from north to south. On the north at the 49th parallel, Montana borders Canada. The name, of Latin origin, means "mountainous region." The nicknames "Treasure State" and "Big Sky Country" suggest Montana's resources, clear atmosphere, and vast distances. The eastern three fifths of the state consists of rolling short-grass plains cut by three long rivers, each containing rich irrigated agricultural lands.

Montana, one of the Mountain states, ranks fourth in size but is among the ten least populous of all the U.S. states. Bordering many provinces of Canadian including Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan on the north. On the west it touches North Dakota and South Dakota. On the south it borders Wyoming and Idaho on the west and a little part in the southwest. Montana stretches nearly nine hundred from the Rocky Mountains and Continental Divide in the west to the rolling plains in the east.