Excerpt from Report of the Governor of Montana, Made to the Secretary of the Interior, 1883
At the time of the census of 1880 Montana had less than in habitants. That same year witnessed the entry of the first railroad within her borders. During the ten preceding years the population had barely doubled, but within the last three years it has advanced from to upwards of according to the most careful and re liable estimates. In a Territory so vast as Montana, being exceeded in area by only two States and a single Territory, the accession of a mill ion inhabitants would still leave it sparsely settled. While it is true that much of its surface seems adapted, so far as yet known, to a scanty population engaged in pastoral pursuits, other sections, covering proba bly a fourth of its area, creviced and underlaid with mineral wealth, is certainly destined to give homes and employment to a dense population at no distant day, furnishing a home market for a large share of its agricultural products. Bearing in mind the fact that the railroad has only been completed for about two months, too late to accommodate the immigration of the present year, it is quite within reasonable bounds to predict that the population of Montana will swell to within the next three years. There are some things interfering with the rapid settlement of the Territory that deserve the attention of the General Government for their reduction or removal.
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