|
|
Weather:
Missoula, MT Links
Chamber of Commerce
Visit Missoula
|
Missoula is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County in western Montana, United States. As of
the United States 2000 Census, the population was 57,053, with more than 100,000 in the metropolitan
area making it the second-largest city in Montana, behind Billings. Missoula is the home of the
University of Montana. It is the birthplace of Jeannette Rankin (1880 - 1973), the first woman
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Missoula is nicknamed the Garden City. The state
flower of Montana, the bitterroot, grows near Missoula. Local newspapers include the Missoulian and
the Missoula Independent
Missoula, MT History:
The first inhabitants of the Missoula area were American Indians from the Salish tribe.
They called the area "Nemissoolatakoo," from which "Missoula" is derived. The word
translates roughly to "river of ambush/surprise," a reflection of the inter-tribal
fighting common to the area. The Indians' first encounter with whites came in 1805 when
the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the Missoula Valley.
There were no permanent white settlements in the Missoula Valley, until 1860 when C. P.
Higgins and Francis Worden opened a trading post called the Hellgate Village on the
Blackfoot River near the eastern edge of the valley. It was followed by a sawmill and a
flourmill, which the settlers called "Missoula Mills". The completion of the Mullan Road
connecting Fort Benton, Montana with Walla Walla, Washington and passing through the
Missoula Valley meant fast growth for the burgeoning city, buoyed by the U.S. Army's
establishment of Fort Missoula in 1877, and the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad
in 1883. With this 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 Company in the early
1880s.
The city's success was aided by two other factors. First was the opening of the University
of Montana in September 1895, serving as the center of public higher education for Western
Montana. Then, 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.
Until the mid 1970s, logging was a mainstay industry with log yards throughout the city.
Many ran teepee burners to dispose waste material, contributing to the smoky haze that
sometimes covered the town. The current site of Southgate Mall was once the location of
the largest log-processing yard within several hundred miles. The saws could be heard over
two miles away on a clear summer night. However, by the early 1990s, changes in the
economic fortunes in the city had shut down all the Missoula log yards.
Missoula Businesses Wanted
Have a computer or internet related business in Missoula, Montana?
We would like to talk to you about becoming a reseller of our services.
Contact Us to request more information or a copy of
our resellers agreement.
|
