Montana Mogul is One of the World’s 500 Richest People

Today, Forbes Magazine released their annual list of the World's Richest People and one of them built his fortune right here in Montana.

Dennis Washington started working for his uncle's construction company in Missoula before striking out on his own.  He later bought an abandoned copper mine in the 80's, which is now worth over a billion dollars.  He also controls Montana Rail Link and has expanded his shipping business into Canada and Russia.

Today, he's worth an estimated $5.8 Billion, making him the richest man in Montana and the 240th richest man in the world.  According to Forbes, there are now 1,645 billionaires worldwide.  We're not sure how many of those billionaires are from Montana, but we do know that Washington was the only Montanan on their list of the world's richest people.