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sapphire

(Encyclopedia)sapphire, precious stone. A transparent blue corundum, it is classified among the most valuable of gems. Sapphires are found chiefly in Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar and also in Thailand, Tanzani...

Family Compact, in French and Spanish history

(Encyclopedia)Family Compact, several alliances between France and Spain in the form of agreements between the French and Spanish branches of the Bourbon family. The first of the three compacts, the Treaty of the E...

Kalispel

(Encyclopedia)Kalispel pŏnˌdərāˈ [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Salishan branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Kalispel were given...

Bozeman, John M.

(Encyclopedia)Bozeman, John M. bōzˈmən [key], 1835–67, American pioneer. A Georgian, he went to the gold fields of Colorado (1861) and Montana (1862). In the winter of 1862–63 he traveled with a companion fr...

Bannack

(Encyclopedia)Bannack bănˈək [key], SW Mont. Founded in 1862 when gold was discovered along Grasshopper Creek, Bannack was the first town in Montana and was the first territorial capital (1864–65). It declined...

Flathead Lake

(Encyclopedia)Flathead Lake, 197 sq mi (510 sq km), 30 mi (48 km) long, NW Mont.; largest natural lake in Montana. Formed by the glacial damming of the Flathead River, which flows through it from north to south, Fl...

Gros Ventre

(Encyclopedia)Gros Ventre grō văNˈtrə [key] [Fr.,=big belly], name used by the French for two quite distinct Native North American groups. One was the Atsina, a detached band of the Arapaho, whose language belo...

Meagher, Thomas Francis

(Encyclopedia)Meagher, Thomas Francis mär [key], 1823–67, Irish revolutionary and Union general in the American Civil War, b. Waterford, Ireland. A leader of the Young Ireland movement, he was arrested and conde...

Marias

(Encyclopedia)Marias mərīˈəz [key], river, c.210 mi (340 km) long, rising in several branches in NW Montana near the Continental Divide and flowing SE to the Missouri River near Fort Benton. It receives the Tet...

Havre

(Encyclopedia)Havre hăvˈər [key], city (2020 pop. 9,955), seat of Hill co., N Mont., on the Milk River; ...