Montana

Economic and Ethnic Makeup

Socially oriented businesses also thrive in this setting. For example, while a local restaurant in a densely populated city would fiercely compete for business, in the more sparsely settled parts of Montana, a similar restaurant faces little competition. Regular customers become part of the restaurant's social atmosphere, forming a network even while on only a first-name basis with one another. Similar networks are also seen at small-town Montana bars, bowling alleys, bookstores, record stores, arcades, music venues, and playgrounds, where parents form social networks with other parents while arranging childrens' play dates. Montana's economy has suffered in recent years from the decline of industry in the heartland and the resulting decreased demand for raw materials. Population growth has been concentrated primarily in Gallatin County, in Bozeman and its surrounding towns, home to ski resorts, film locations, and Montana State University.

Montana is 92 percent white, with Native Americans the next-largest ethnic group at 7 percent, and all other groups less than 1 percent. Although French Catholics [Page 548]were the first European settlers in Montana, German Protestants greatly outnumbered them in time, and German and Scandinavian Americans form the bulk of the population today. Scandinavians have especially settled in the agricultural prairie regions, many of them descended from 19th-century homesteaders, and the frequency of intermarriage among especially the older Scandinavian families has resulted in strong social network connections. Mining towns in western Montana have the highest concentration of smaller ethnic groups constituting their own social networks, such as eastern Europeans and Chinese Americans, while the Hispanic and especially Mexican American population is concentrated in the Billings area. Montana's minority populations have a long history in the state, a presence going back for generations, as the rate of current immigration is quite low. The Chinese in particular have a long history and well-established social networks in Helena, where Chinese workers were instrumental in the 1860s gold rush that founded the city.

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