Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Montana had a 2007-2011 median household income of $45,324, which is well below the
national average of $52,762. Following a longstanding trend, Montana's unemployment
rate in July 2013 was 5.3 percent, well below the national average of 7.4 percent for the
same time period.
Indeed, when other parts of the country seem to be struggling, Montana's economy
keeps chugging along. Real estate certainly took a hit since the economic downturn began,
but enough people seem to be moving here that home prices fell far less than the national
average and were posting gains again by 2012. Resort communities like Big Sky and White-
fish took more of a hit, but communities like Missoula, Bozeman, and Helena continued to
flourish.
The economy in Wyoming is similar to Montana's in that natural resource extraction, ag-
riculture, and tourism play major roles. Oil production, in which Wyoming ranks 8th, has
been eclipsed by coal and natural gas, making Wyoming the country's second-largest pro-
ducer of energy (after Texas) as of 2011. By comparison, Montana ranks 17th in energy
production. Wyoming is the leading coal producer and the third-largest natural gas produ-
cer in the nation. Eight of the country's largest coal mines are in Wyoming, and the state
has billions of tons of coal still below the surface, mainly in the Powder River and Bighorn
Basins. Wyoming produces roughly 40 percent of the country's coal.
Wyoming mines also produce more than 90 percent of the nation's supply of soda ash,
derived from the mineral trona, which is used in everything from pool chemicals to glass-
making. The trona deposit in Green River is the largest in the world. Soda ash is the state's
largest export, and 50 percent of the product is shipped overseas.
Since most of Wyoming can be classified as rural, it's no surprise that agriculture plays a
vital role in the state's economy—more than $1.1 billion in cash receipts annually. There are
more than 11,000 farms and ranches operating in Wyoming, occupying 30.2 million acres.
The number of ranches and farms peaked at more than 18,000 in the 1930s, then slowly de-
clined, but the industry has leveled off in the past few decades and is now starting to grow
again.
The cattle industry produces the largest agricultural commodity—mainly beef
cattle—and dates back to the mid-1880s, when settlers first came to the West. After the
Civil War, cattle ranching flourished, and Cheyenne became a world trade center for the
beef industry. Wyoming's range cattle have long garnered top prices on the open market.
