Of Montana’s 24 governors do you know how many were actually born in the Treasure State?

Montana became a state on November 8, 1889 and the first governor to serve the new state was Joseph Toole.  He was also the only governor to serve three terms.  Before  Montana became a state, there were 12 territorial governors dating all the way back to 1864.

11 of montana's governors were born in another state, two were born in Canada and 11 are native born.  Eight of the 13 born in another state or Canada were democrats.  Which I find interesting since a lot of democrats were criticizing Current Governor Greg Gianforte for not being from Montana even though he has lived here for over twenty years.  Do you know where Gianforte was actually born?  If you said Pennsylvania you would  be wrong.  He was actually born in San Diego, California.

The first Montana Governor to be born in the state was Roy Ayers.  He was born in Lewistown when Montana was still a territory.  He served from 1937 until 1941.   In all there have been just eleven born in the state.  The last native Montanan to serve was Steve Bullock who came  from Missoula.

Kentucky has produced three Montana Governors.  Robert Smith, who served as Montana Governor from 1897 until 1901 was the first from Kentucky.  Edwin Norris was the second Kentuckian to serve as Montana Governor.  He did so from 1908-1913.  the third from Kentucky was Sam Ford who served from 1941-49.

Two Montana governors were actually born across the border in Ontario,  Canada.  They were Frank Cooney and Stan Stevens.  Montana has also had two governors that were born in Missouri, and one each from Wisconsin, Ohio, Delaware, North Carolina and Minnesota.

Native born Montana governors have come from Lewistown, Missoula, Butte, Lambert, Helean, Thompson Falls, Havre, Wolf Point and Big Timber.   Judy Martz is still the first and only woman Governor to serve Montana.