Montana State Capitol: Copper on the Dome
Near Helena, Montana
Montana entered the Union in eighteen eighty-nine, and its state capitol in Helena was completed in nineteen oh two, with a copper-clad dome that announced the source of the state's wealth. The dome is covered in copper, a material choice that doubled as a statement about what had built the state. Inside, Charles Russell painted a massive mural of Lewis and Clark meeting the Flathead Nation in nineteen twelve, a scene twelve feet tall and twenty-five feet wide that hangs above the Speaker's chair in the House chamber.
The building was expanded in nineteen twelve with two wings, and a statue of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the United States Congress, stands inside the capitol. Rankin, a Montanan elected in nineteen sixteen, voted against entry into both World Wars.
