Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five mountain ranges, and thus it is often described as the "hub of five valleys". It is the second-most populous city in Montana with a population of 73,489 at the 2020 census and estimated at 78,204 in 2024, while the Missoula metropolitan area has an estimated 128,000 residents. Missoula is home to the University of Montana, a public research university.
The Missoula area was settled by people of European descent from 1858, including William T. Hamilton, who set up a trading post along the Rattlesnake Creek; Captain Richard Grant, who settled near Grant Creek; and David Pattee, who settled near Pattee Canyon. Missoula was founded in 1860 as Hellgate Trading Post while still part of Washington Territory. By 1866, the settlement had moved east, upstream, and had been renamed "Missoula Mills", later shortened to Missoula. The mills provided supplies to western settlers traveling along the Mullan Road. The establishment of Fort Missoula in 1877 to protect settlers further stabilized the economy. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 brought rapid growth and the maturation of the local lumber industry. In 1893, the Montana Legislature chose Missoula as the site for the state's first university. Along with the U.S. Forest Service headquarters founded in 1908, lumber and the university remained the basis of the local economy for the next 100 years.
By the 1990s, Missoula's lumber industry had gradually disappeared, and as of 2009, the city's largest employers were the University of Montana, Missoula County Public Schools, and Missoula's two hospitals. The city is governed by a mayor–council government with 12 city council members, two from each of the six wards. In and around Missoula are of parkland, of trails, and nearly of open-space conservation land, with adjacent Mount Jumbo being home to grazing elk and mule deer during the winter. The city is also home to both of Montana's largest and its oldest active breweries, as well as the Montana Grizzlies.
History
Archaeological artifacts date the earliest inhabitants of the Missoula Valley to, with settlements as early as. From the 1700s until the 1850s, those who used the land were primarily the Salish, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille, Blackfeet, and Shoshone people. Located at the confluence of five mountain valleys, the Missoula Valley was heavily traversed by local and distant native tribes that periodically went to the Eastern Montana plains in search of bison. This led to conflicts. The narrow valley at Missoula's eastern entrance was so strewn with human bones from repeated ambushes that French fur trappers later referred to this area as , translated as "". would remain the name of the area until it was renamed "Missoula" in 1866.The Lewis and Clark Expedition brought the first U.S. citizens to the area. They twice stopped just south of Missoula at Traveler's Rest. They camped there the first time on their westbound trip in September 1805. When they stayed there again, on their return in June–July 1806, Clark left heading south along the Bitterroot River and Lewis traveled north, then east, through Hellgate Canyon. In 1860, Village was established west of present-day downtown by Christopher P. Higgins and Frank Worden as a trading post to serve travelers on the recently completed Mullan Road, the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the inland of the Pacific Northwest. The desire for a more convenient water supply to power a lumber and flour mill led to the movement of the settlement to its modern location in 1864.
The Missoula Mills replaced Village as the economic power of the valley and replaced it as the county seat in 1866. The name "Missoula" came from the Salish name for the Clark Fork River, nmesuletkw, which roughly translates as "place of frozen water". Fort Missoula was established in 1877 to help protect further arriving settlers. Growth accelerated with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883, and by charter, Missoula incorporated a municipal government as a town, the same year. In 1885, Missoula reincorporated its government as a city.
In 1893, Missoula was chosen as the location for the first state university, the University of Montana. The need for lumber for the railway and its bridges spurred the opening of multiple saw mills in the area, and in turn, the beginning of Missoula's lumber industry, which remained the mainstay of the area economy for the next 100 years. The United States Forest Service work in Missoula began in 1905. Missoula is also home of the smokejumpers' headquarters and will be the site of the National Museum of Forest Service History. Nationally, there are nine Forest Service regions; Region1 is headquartered in Missoula.
Logging remained a mainstay of industry in Missoula with the groundbreaking of the Hoerner-Waldorf pulp mill in 1956, which resulted in protests over the resultant air pollution. An article in Life 13 years later speaks of Missoulians sometimes needing to drive with headlights on during the day to navigate through the smog. In 1979, almost 40% of the county labor income still came from the wood and paper-products sector. The lumber industry was hit hard by the recession of the early 1980s, and Missoula's economy began to diversify. By the early 1990s, the disappearance of many of the region's log yards, along with legislation, had helped clean the air dramatically.
In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in Missoula, spurring rapid growth in the town, which by then had about 500 residents.
In March 1970, the Northern Pacific, along with three other closely affiliated railroads merged to form Burlington Northern.
File:Evaro Hill.jpg|thumb|A Montana Rail Link oil train. Until January 2024, when BNSF resumed operations on the tracks formerly leased to MRL, the defunct company had its headquarters in Missoula.
In 1987, BN decided to lease, for an initial term of 60 years, the ex-NP route to entrepreneur Dennis Washington, who formed Montana Rail Link. MRL established its headquarters in Missoula.
In January 2022, BNSF agreed to pay MRL $2 billion for an early lease termination. The return to BNSF control required the approval of the Surface Transportation Board, and this was later approved on March 8, 2023. BNSF took over operations on January 1, 2024. This absorbed the MRL into BNSF, integrating MRL operations, technology and personnel. All 1,200 employees were offered employment with BNSF.
, education and healthcare were Missoula's leading industries; the University of Montana, Missoula County Public Schools, and the two hospitals in the city were the largest employers. St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center, founded in 1873, is the region's only Level II trauma center and has undergone three major expansions since the 1980s. Likewise, the University of Montana grew 50% and built or renovated 20 buildings from 1990 to 2010. These industries, as well as expansions in business and professional services, and retail are expected to be the main engines of future growth.
On June 2, 2025, the Missoula City Council passed a resolution making the rainbow flag its official flag, allowing it to be flown on city property despite the state law prohibiting flags other than official municipal flags and "historical flags of the United States" from being flown on Government property.
Missoula's oldest commercial district, Downtown is also home to more than 30 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places beginning in 1976 with the A.J. Gibson designed County Courthouse constructed in 1908 being added. The Post Office, Wilma Theatre and Higgins Block were all added a couple years later. In the 1970s businesses fled Downtown for cheaper land in Southwest Missoula. This created a second commercial district focused around the Southgate Mall, built in 1978. Subsequent deterioration of Downtown ironically saved its future. With old buildings too expensive to replace and no big businesses moving in rents began to fall. This led to the myriad of small start-up shops in historic buildings that Downtown is known for today. The area went from bankrupt to the center of Missoula's arts and culture in matter of 25 years. In the late 1990s North Reserve Street became the new center for large retail stores. Located at the cross streets of Highway-93 and the old Mullan Road with easy access to Interstate 90, the area has become a major shopping destination for local and regional customers.
Geography
Missoula is located at the western edge of Montana, less than from the Idaho border as the crow flies. By highway it is south of Kalispell, northwest of Butte and southeast of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The city is at an elevation of above sea level, with nearby Mount Sentinel and Mount Jumbo steeply rising to and, respectively.According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
Around 13,000 years ago, the entire valley was at the bottom of Glacial Lake Missoula. As could be expected for a former lake bottom, the layout of Missoula is relatively flat and surrounded by steep hills. Evidence of the city of Missoula's lake-bottom past can be seen in the form of ancient horizontal wave-cut shorelines on nearby Mount Sentinel and Mount Jumbo. At the location of present-day University of Montana, the lake once had a depth of. The Clark Fork River enters the Missoula Valley from the east through Hellgate Canyon after joining the Blackfoot River east of downtown, at the site of the former Milltown Dam. The Bitterroot River and multiple smaller tributaries join the Clark Fork on the western edge of Missoula. The city also sits at the convergence of five mountain ranges: the Bitterroot Mountains, Sapphire Range, Garnet Range, Rattlesnake Mountains, and the Reservation Divide, and thus is often described as being the "hub of five valleys".
Soils in Missoula are mostly of silty clay loam or loam texture. Some of the loams which developed on stream terraces and alluvial fans are very gravelly. Soil drainage is somewhat excessive where gravel content is high, and the less gravelly soils are well drained. Topsoils usually have neutral pH while subsoils may be rich in calcium carbonate and therefore alkaline.