Missoula History
The city of Missoula began as a tenuous settlement known as Hell Gate in 1860, when entrepreneurs C.P. Higgins and Francis Worden saw trade possibilities and opened a log store in the valley.
Although the Lewis and Clark Expedition had traveled through the area in 1806, and British explorer David Thompson had charted it in 1812, the nearest settlements – Fort Owen in the Bitterroot and St. Ignatius – remained tiny, and travelers were few.
However, the search for gold and the completion in 1863 of the Mullan Road, which opened up travel from Fort Benton to Walla Walla, Wash., brought people to the Missoula Valley. The settlement became known as Missoula, taken from a Salish Indian word meaning “near the cold, chilling waters,” and in 1866 became the county seat. The first jail was built the same year, the first school in 1869 and the first newspaper established in 1871.
The Northern Pacific Railroad reached Missoula in 1883, the same year the city was incorporated. Missoula became a trading center in earnest, distributing produce and grain grown in the agriculturally prosperous Bitterroot Valley. Businessmen A.B. Hammond, E.L. Bonner and R.A. Eddy established the Missoula Mercantile Co. in the early 1880s, and electricity arrived in 1889.
The University of Montana opened in September 1895, and in 1908 Missoula became a regional headquarters for the Forest Service, which began training smokejumpers in 1942. The Aerial Fire Depot was built in 1954, and big industry came to Missoula in 1956 with the groundbreaking for the first pulp mill.
Although the city is still grappling with economic problems caused by declines in the wood-products industry and in state and federal revenues, Missoula today still serves as a center for education, medicine, recreation, forest products, retailing and the arts. The population of the city has grown to more than 64,000 people; the county has more than 101,000 people of diverse backgrounds and interests.
The University of Montana maintains an enrollment of nearly 14,000 students in its College of Arts and Sciences and seven professional schools, including the state’s only law school. The school also operates a biological station at Flathead Lake and Lubrecht Experimental Forest.
Missoula is a unique city for its size and location. Its quality of life makes it easy for its residents to want to stay on, enjoying its two ski areas, nearby wilderness areas, theater productions, symphony and string orchestras, sporting events and broad range of restaurants. The cultural center of Montana, Missoula attracts artists and writers who bring attention to the city from around the country.
Mike Mansfield once wrote of Montana, “Modern transitions notwithstanding, something remains in the state that is durably unique and uniquely durable.”
The same could be said of Missoula. Higgins and Worden had no idea what they were starting when they built their log trading post more than 100 years ago.
