Authorized in 1904, the construction of the Tennessee-class armored cruiser, U.S.S. Montana (ACR- 13), began a year later in Newport News, Virginia. Montana was 502 feet in length, 72 feet and 10 inches in breadth, and had a displacement of 14,500 tons. Montana’s main armament consisted of four 10-inch, 40 caliber Mark 3 guns. Alongside many Montanans, including Governor Joseph K. Toole, Miss Minnie Conrad, daughter of Helena, Montana millionaire and railroad magnate, William G. Conrad, sponsored the ship when it launched on December 15, 1906. On July 21, 1908, Montana was commissioned at the Gosport Navy Yard, later renamed the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1929, in Portsmouth, Virginia. While the 1907 Legislative Assembly was in session, State Senator Dr. W. H. Haviland, a Democrat representing Silver Bow County, sponsored the appropriation of $6,000 for the purchase of silver service for the Montana. Later that year, Governor Toole appointed a three-member commission – Senator Haviland, Chief Justice Theodore Brantly of Deer Lodge, MT, and W. W. Cheely of Butte, MT – to select a manufacturer for the silver service. The agents of the Massachusetts-based Reed and Barton Company, the Huber Brothers of Dillon, MT, won the $5,000 contract to manufacture the silver service. As mandated, the commission set aside the remaining $1,000 for any transportation and insurance costs incurred during delivery to the Montana. Derived from sketches submitted by Reed and Barton prior to the final agreement in August 1907, the Huber Brothers completed the entire set of silver service in 1908. Afterwards, the silver service went on exhibition in Dillon, Butte, Helena, and New York City. In May 1908, the commissioners formally accepted the silver service in a ceremony held in Butte. On November 11, 1908, the Montana returned to Gosport Navy Yard to formally accept the silver service from the commission. After launching in 1906, the Montana was attached to the Atlantic Fleet. Following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire, she was assigned to the Special Service Squadron to protect American interests in the Mediterranean. In 1910 Montana visited Argentina in honor of the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution, which fomented the Argentine War of Independence. In response to the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars, Montana was again sent to the Mediterranean to protect American interests. Under the command of Louis McCoy Nulton, Montana participated in the 1914 American occupation of Veracruz. After the United States’ entered World War I in 1917, Montana escorted convoys across the Atlantic. At the end of the war, Montana ferried American soldiers home from France. From January to July of 1919, she made six round trips to Europe and ferried home 8,800 troops. On June 7, 1920, Montana was renamed U.S.S. Missoula (CA-13), in honor of Missoula, Montana. Months later, Missoula was decommissioned at Puget Sound on February 2, 1921. Missoula was stricken from the Navy list in July 1930 and sold in September of the same year. She was scrapped by her purchaser on October 15, 1935, in accordance with the London treaty for the reduction of naval armaments. Following the Missoula’s decommissioning in 1921, the silver service was placed aboard the U.S.S. Helena (CL-50). The second ship to bear the name Montana was never completed. Authorized in 1917, construction of the ship started in 1920 at the Mare Island Navy yard. Nearly one-quarter of the ship was completed before construction ceased due to the Washington Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament. Had construction finished, U.S.S. Montana (Battleship No. 51) would have rivaled its contemporaries in size and armament, with a 43,200-ton displacement and twelve 16-inch guns. The portion of the ship constructed was broken up and scrapped in 1923.