The Butte Salute to Out of State Plates? That’s Not Very Montana

My friend in Western Montana started a new job and has a company car.  The company car has out-of-state plates and to quote her " the Montana plates can't arrive soon enough".

Apparently, there has been a bit of...well, it's been an "experience" according to my friend.

She then asked Montanan's an interesting question, one that I'm going to ask here.  What state plates do you automatically react to and what state plates do you give a pass?

It seems that we might have a bit of animosity toward those with state plates that we don't approve of.  We all know how the folks in Montana feel about Californians, but apparently, that's not the only state that makes the list.  Washington and Oregon, I'm told, are also not highly thought of.

Oh and here is something interesting, this isn't a new thing.  One person said, and I quote "when we moved here 30 years ago, grown men would flip me off with my children in the car." Another friend said "In 1985 California plates on my 280Z got me flipped off on a regular basis, once I switched over to Montana plates, it never happened again."

Seriously? The Butte Salute over license plates? Oh, and it's not just out of state plates that anger Montanan's.

Nope.  I've had a couple of people tell me that "whatever I do, don't get a license plate starting with a 6, go and get a personal plate".  It would seem that many of our fellow Montanans don't only dislike folks from California, Washington, Oregon, and other states, apparently they don't like folks from Bozeman or Gallatin County either.

So for those keeping score at home.  We don't like folks from the West Coast, OR folks from Bozeman, or as it's often called, "Boz Angeles".  Here's the good news: we have over 100 different plates to choose from, and almost all of them support a great cause that benefits Montana in some way.

Oh, and maybe a bit of advice to all of you flipper offers out there: eyes on the road.