University of Montana Western
public university located in Dillon, Montana, United States; part of the Montana University System
The University of Montana Western (UMW, Montana Western) is a public college in Dillon, Montana, United States. It is affiliated with the University of Montana and part of the Montana University System. It was founded in 1893 as "Montana State Normal School" and was also the "Western Montana College of the University of Montana" before becoming part of the Montana University System in 2000. Enrollment of full-time, degree seeking students as of Fall 2018 was 1,221 students.
History
The college was founded as the Montana State Normal School in 1893 to train teachers according to a model used by other states. Education was considered highly important for the state. The first term of the Montana State Normal School began on September 6, 1897, with courses in elementary education for all grades below high school which took two years to complete, a one-year professional course for all teachers with two years of prior experience, an English-Scientific course which gave students a four-year diploma, a four-year Latin course, and a graduate course.
Academics at the college expanded with increased programs and had a four-year curriculum; the addition of other subjects and departments led to its being renamed as Western Montana College. It became part of the Montana University System in 2000 and its name was changed to University of Montana Western.
Student life
Athletics
The Montana–Western (UMW) athletic teams are called the Bulldogs.
“University of Montana Western” enters the record as public university located in Dillon, Montana, United States; part of the Montana University System. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what University, Montana and Western can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“University of Montana Western” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, University, Montana and Western provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3551358. Authority coordinates are 45.208, -112.638. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 2000, 2018 and 1897.
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This entry incorporates text from “University of Montana Western” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.