Significance of Montana.

Montana is the first American state Ken enters and hikes though. Because he is American, Montana, therefore, represents home to Ken, though he does not live there. At the same time, it represents the differences and the shift in culture from Canada to the United States. This is most highlighted by the differing attitudes toward trespassing and private property. Ken writes of Montana as "No Trespassing county" (117). He also writes: "No one in Canada had a problem with my trespassing over their property, but someone in nearly every Montana town I passed through would inform me with morbid certainty that I was crazy. And then they’d warn me (in a friendly sort of way) that I’d get shot for trespassing on so-and-so’s land. People who didn’t even own land would tell me not to trespass" (117). Montana then prompts a greater reflection on the nature of private versus public land and different attitudes toward the so-called "right to roam."