In the agricultural regions of Montana, much of the initial white settlement was spurred by a government program granting tracts of free farmland to new settlers, provided they lived on (and "improved") the land for a period of years. That brought many thousands of hopeful people out here over a very short period. Unfortunately, though, the amount of land offered was wholly insufficient to support a farm, due to the difficult and arid climate ... so most of the early settlers left very quickly, largely depopulating the land. It was a tragic story, but it left lots of abandoned farmsteads out there, a surprising number of which are still readily identifiable.

Montana is indeed very thinly populated ... especially the eastern farmlands. I think we're something like 5 times the size of Scotland, but with fewer than a million people, and most of those are in a few larger towns.

And thank you for giving me an excuse to expound! Most of my friends just roll their eyes when I start talking about this sort of stuff. :) You're also reminding me that I really want to visit Scotland one of these years ...