Missoula ( ) is a city in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
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".
The population was 73,489 at the
2020 census,
and was estimated to be 78,204 in 2024.
Missoula and Mineral Counties are included in the
Missoula metropolitan area at 127,741 in 2024. Missoula is the second-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area in Montana. Missoula is home to the
University of Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...
, a
public research university
A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...
.
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
The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...
. 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
The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
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 , 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
The Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz are the nicknames given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana, located in Missoula, Montana, Missoula. The university is a member of the Big Sky Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fieldin ...
.
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
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshon ...
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
A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American ...
. 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
The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
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 University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...
. 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
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...
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
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' 13 years later speaks of Missoulians sometimes needing to drive with headlights on during the day to navigate through the
smog
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and ''fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odour. The word was then inte ...
.
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 (
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy,
Great Northern and
Spokane, Portland & Seattle) merged to form
Burlington Northern.
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
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is an independent federal agency that serves as an adjudicatory board. The board was created in 1996 following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and absorbed regula ...
, 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 (HB 819) prohibiting flags other than official municipal flags and "historical flags of the United States" from being flown by local governments.
Missoula's oldest commercial district, ''Downtown'' is also home to more than 30 buildings listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
beginning in 1976 with the
A.J. Gibson designed
County Courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...
constructed in 1908 being added. The
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
, 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
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
border
as the crow flies. By highway it is south of
Kalispell, northwest of
Butte
In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...
and southeast of
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene ( ; ) is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the most populous city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 54,628 at th ...
. The city is at an elevation of
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
, with nearby
Mount Sentinel
Mount Sentinel, originally known as "Mount Woody,"Cohen is a small mountain located immediately east of the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. At a height of 1,958 feet and an elevation of , Mount Sentinel also features the hillside le ...
and
Mount Jumbo steeply rising to and , respectively.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.54%) 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 (Bigarm Series). 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
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a common substance found in Rock (geology), rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skel ...
and therefore alkaline.
Suburbs
*
Bonner-West Riverside
*
Clinton
*
East Missoula
*
Evaro
*
Frenchtown
*
Lolo
*
Orchard Homes
*
Piltzville
*
Turah
*
Twin Creeks
*
Wye
Flora and fauna
Located in the Northern Rockies, Missoula has a typical
Rocky Mountain ecology. Local wildlife includes populations of
white-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...
,
moose
The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...
,
grizzly bears,
black bears,
osprey
The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It ...
, and
bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...
s. During the winter, rapid snowmelt on Mount Jumbo due to its steep slope leaves grass available for grazing
elk and
mule deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer.
Unlike the related whit ...
. The rivers around Missoula provide nesting habitats for
bank swallows,
northern rough-winged swallows, and
belted kingfishers.
Killdeer and
spotted sandpipers can be seen foraging for insects along the gravel bars. Other species include
song sparrows,
catbird
Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name ''Ailuroedus'' likewise is from the Greek for 'cat-singer' or 'cat-voiced'.
Australasian catbirds are ...
s, several species of
warblers, and the
pileated woodpecker. The rivers also provide cold, clean water for native fish such as
westslope cutthroat trout and
bull trout. The meandering streams also attract
beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...
and
wood duck
The wood duck or Carolina duck (''Aix sponsa'') is a partially migratory species of perching duck found in North America. The male is one of the most colorful North American waterfowls.
Taxonomy
The wood duck was Species description, formal ...
s.
The parks also host a variety of snakes such as
racers,
garter snakes, and
rubber boa.
Native riparian plant life includes sandbar
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Most species are known ...
s and
cottonwoods, with Montana's state tree, the
ponderosa pine, also being prevalent. Other native plants include wetland species such as
cattails and
beaked sedge, as well as shrubs and berry plants such as
Douglas hawthorn,
chokecherry, and
western snowberries.
To the chagrin of local farmers, Missoula is also home to several
noxious weed
A noxious weed, harmful weed or injurious weed is a weed that has been designated by an agricultural or other governing authority as a plant that is harmful to agricultural or horticultural crops, natural habitats or ecosystems, or humans or lives ...
s, which multiple programs have set out to eliminate. Notable ones include
Dalmatian toadflax,
spotted knapweed,
leafy spurge,
St. John's wort, and
sulfur cinquefoil.
Controversially, the Norway maples that line many of Missoula's older streets have also been declared an invasive species.
Climate
Missoula has a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
''Dfb''),
with cold and moderately snowy winters, hot and dry summers, and short, crisp springs and autumns. Winters are usually milder than much of the rest of the state due to Missoula's location
west of the Rockies, allowing it to receive mild, moist Pacific air and avoid the worst of cold snaps; however, it also gets more precipitation in winter. Winter snowfall averages , typically occurring between October 30 and April 20, with an annual average of 120 days of snow on the ground. As with the rest of the state, summers are very sunny, and the average
diurnal temperature variation
In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day.
Temperature lag
Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diur ...
is more than from late June through late September, due to the relative aridity. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in December to in July. On average, annually, there are 24 days with temperatures at or above , 45 days where the temperature does not rise above freezing, and 7.8 days with temperatures reaching at or below . Record temperatures range from on January 26, 1957, up to , most recently on June 30, 2021; the record cold maximum is , last recorded on February 2, 1989, while, conversely, the record warm minimum is on July 27, 1939.
Demographics
As of the 2023
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
, there are 33,958 estimated households in Missoula with an average of 2.14 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $65,329. Approximately 12.8% of the city's population lives at or below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
. Missoula has an estimated 72.6% employment rate, with 51.7% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 96.8% holding a high school diploma.
The median age in the city was 34.6 years.
2020 census
As of the
2020 census, there were 73,489 people, 32,816 households, and 16,040 families residing in the city. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 34,747 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 84.41%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.85%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 2.85%
Native American, 1.43%
Asian, 0.13%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 3.08% from some other races and 7.25% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 6.22% of the population.
2010 census
As of the
2010 census, there were 66,788 people, 29,081 households, and 13,990 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 30,682 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 92.13%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.53%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 2.75%
Native American, 1.21%
Asian, 0.10%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.50% from some other races and 2.77% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.91% of the population.
There were 29,081 households, 23.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.4% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 51.9% were not families. About 35.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the city, the population was distributed as 17.9% of residents under 18, 19.7% between the ages of 18 and 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age in the city was 30.9 years. The gender makeup of the city was 49.9% male and 50.1% female.
In the
2000 census, the median income for a household in the city was $30,366, and for a family was $42,103. Males had a median income of $30,686 versus $21,559 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $17,166. About 11.7% of families and 19.7% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 20.5% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over. About 40.3% of Missoula residents age 25 and older have a bachelor's or advanced college degree.
Economy
Missoula began as a trading post in the 1860s situated along the Mullan Military Road to take advantage of the first route across the Bitterroot Mountains to the plains of Eastern Washington. Its designation as county seat in 1866 and location of the hastily built Fort Missoula in 1877 ensured Missoula's status as a regional commercial center, a status further consolidated in 1883 with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway.
The railroad expanded Missoula's trade area to cover a 150-mile radius, and Missoula's location as the railway's division point and repair shops provided hundreds of jobs. When the railway began expanding again in 1898, increased freight shipments came through the city, and with the arrival of the
Milwaukee Road
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...
and regional office for the U.S. Forest Service, as well as the opening of the
Flathead Indian Reservation to settlement all within a couple years of each other beginning in 1908, the economy began to expand rapidly.
Lumber mills were originally built to provide construction-grade materials for homes and businesses, but then expanded to entice and then meet the demands of the railroad; they profited from an increase in demand from railroad expansion and the nation at large. The Bonner mill, owned the Northern Pacific and Copper King
Marcus Daly, became the largest producer of lumber in the northwest. In 1908, Missoula's location as both a major lumber producer and a regional commercial center helped land the city the regional office for the newly establish U.S. Forest Service, created to help manage the nation's timber supply.
Over the next century, Missoula's various lumber industries was consolidated under various entities such as the
Anaconda Company in the 1970s and
Champion International Paper through the 1980s until most were under control of
Plum Creek Timber, all the while demand in timber dropped. In 2007, a downward spiral of Missoula's lumber industry began with the closure of a plywood plant in Bonner, the closure of Bonner's sawmill in 2008, and the closing of the
Smurfit-Stone Container pulp mill in 2010.
Since opening in 1895, the University of Montana has had a major impact on the development of Missoula's economy. In addition to the economic advantage from accommodating the student body, it gave the city an educated workforce not available in most of the state.
The university has a close relationship with the city as Missoula's largest employer and with the millions of dollars the school brings into the city through visitors of school-sponsored sporting and cultural events.
The university also houses Missoula's only business incubator, the Montana Technology Enterprise Center, and several start-up businesses.
Missoula is the hub of its
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the United States Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency that provides official macroeconomic and industry statistics, most notably reports about the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United ...
(BEA) economic area, which includes the Montana counties of
Flathead,
Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
,
Lincoln,
Mineral
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
,
Missoula
Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...
,
Ravalli, and
Sanders. , the BEA listed the economic area population at 306,050.
Key businesses sectors serving the area include health care, retail shopping, transportation, financial services, government and social services, education, events, arts and culture. Health care in particular is one of Missoula's fastest growing industries with
St. Patrick Hospital (western Montana's only level-II trauma center) and the
Community Medical Center, already the city's second- and third-largest employers behind the university.
About 55% of employment in Missoula is made up of the service and retail sectors. Export industries are concentrated in heavy and civil engineering, construction, beverage production, technical services, truck transportation, and forestry-, logging-, and wood-related industries. In addition to nearly 4million out-of-state visitors annually, which makes tourism a significant aspect of the Missoula economy, Missoula also is home to a vibrant sector of alternative healthcare.
, Missoula ranked 299 nationally in
gross metropolitan product with an output of $5billion, the city's
total personal income Total personal income is defined by the United States' Bureau of Economic Analysis as:income received by persons from all sources. It includes income received from participation in production as well as from government and business transfer payments ...
ranked 333 at $4.18billion, an increase of more than 47% since 2003.
,
per capita personal income ranked 239 at $37,397 a year, 84% of the national average.
The Missoula metropolitan area's unemployment rate was 3.7% , dropping nearly 0.8% in the twelve months prior.
Top Employers
As of the city's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Missoula's top employers are:
Culture
Missoula, often considered the cultural center of Montana,
is the location of the state's first university, and an eclectic mix of loggers, hippies, college students, sports fans, and retirees. Community events generally take place
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
either outdoors or in one of the several downtown buildings
listed on the National Historic Registry.
Since 2006, the River City Roots Festival has been an event each August with music, beer, food, and art, and generally attracts crowds of 15,000.
The longest-standing event downtown has been the Missoula Farmers Market that was founded in 1972, which provides an outlet for Western Montana produce on Saturday mornings from May to October as well as Tuesday evenings from July to early September. An arts and crafts People's Market and a Clark Fork Market run concurrently. Downtown hosts "First Friday Missoula", a gallery walk on the first Friday of the month to feature local art from museums and galleries, such as that of
Monte Dolack. Missoula celebrates "First Night Missoula" on New Year's Eve, which includes food and live entertainment. The "Festival of the Book" to celebrate the literature of the American West was rebranded the "
Montana Book Festival" in 2015. Missoula's two historic theatres both hold annual film festivals: the Roxy hosting the
International Wildlife Film Festival, established in 1977 as the first juried wildlife film festival in the world;
and since 2003, the
Wilma accommodating the largest film event in Montana, the
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
In performance arts, the
Missoula Community Theatre has held performances of musical and nonmusical plays since 1977,
with its affiliated
Missoula Children's Theatre also acting as an international touring program that visits nearly 1,000 communities per year around the world.
Missoula is also home to a number of modern dance companies, including
Bare Bait Dance and
Headwaters Dance Company.
Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre and
Garden City Ballet are also based in Missoula.
The
Montana Museum of Art & Culture, which became a state museum in 2001, is one Montana's oldest cultural reserves, having begun in 1894; its permanent collection houses more than 10,000 original works. The
Missoula Museum of Art is housed in a former
Carnegie library; it features contemporary art and annually features 20–25 group and solo exhibits.
Fort Missoula is home to the Historic Museum, dedicated to preserving the history of Western Montana, and to the
Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History and the
Northern Rockies Heritage Center. The
National Museum of Forest Service History is constructing the
National Conservation Legacy and Education Center in Missoula, too.
Opened in 1987, Missoula's
Bayern Brewing is the oldest active brewery in Montana.
Big Sky Brewing opened in 1995 and with a production over 38,000 barrels , it is by far Montana's largest brewery, and produces the best-selling beer brewed in Montana, Moose Drool Brown Ale. Missoula has also been home to
Kettle House Brewing since 1995 and Draught Works opened in 2011. Big Sky, Bayern, and Kettlehouse represent the first-, second-, and third-largest breweries, respectively, in Montana. Also in 2011,
Tamarack Brewing and
Flathead Lake Brewing Company from nearby
Lake County opened pub houses at downtown Missoula locations. The city also holds annually the Garden City Brewfest and Winterfest, and periodically hosts the Montana Brewers Festival.
The Clay Studio of Missoulais a non-profit ceramic-arts center, which provides education and a community access clay studio.
Sports

Missoula plays host to a variety of intercollegiate, youth, and amateur sports organizations in addition to a
minor league baseball
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...
team. The
Montana Grizzlies
The Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz are the nicknames given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana, located in Missoula, Montana, Missoula. The university is a member of the Big Sky Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fieldin ...
' football and basketball teams of the University of Montana have the highest attendance. The
Montana Grizzlies football
The Montana Grizzlies football (commonly referred to as the "Griz") program represents the University of Montana in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of college football. The Grizzlies have competed in the Big Sky Conferen ...
team has a successful program within the
NCAA D-1 FCS level. Their home games at
Washington–Grizzly Stadium have a near 90% winning percentage and average over 25,000 spectators in attendance. All games are televised throughout Montana. The
Grizzlies men's and
Lady Griz basketball teams have also been successful at the
conference
A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
level, where they both rank at or near the top in attendance, about 4,000 and 3,000, respectively, and play their home games at
Dahlberg Arena.
Missoula is home to the
Missoula PaddleHeads who play in the Rocky Mountain-based
Pioneer Baseball League. They play their home games at
Ogren Park at Allegiance Field.
Since 1977, Missoula has also held "Maggotfest", a festival-style rugby tournament hosted by the
Missoula Maggots Rugby Club the first weekend in May. The non-elimination tournament focuses on the fun aspect of the game, attracting 36 teams (male and female) from around the United States and Canada. In regular-season play, the Missoula Maggots compete as part of the
Montana Rugby Union alongside another local rugby team, the
University of Montana Jesters.
The
Thomas Meagher Hurling Club are also based in Missoula and play in the Northwestern division of the
USGAA. The club are named after the late
Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...
and former acting
Territorial Governor of Montana,
Thomas Francis Meagher.
Parks and recreation
The city has over of parkland, of trails, and nearly of conserved open space.
Located at the confluence of three rivers (the Clark Fork, Bitterroot, and Blackfoot), the area is also popular for
white water rafting and, thanks largely to the
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
and subsequent
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
''A River Runs Through It'' by Missoula native
Norman Maclean, is well known for its
fly fishing. Additionally, Missoula has two aquatic parks,
multiple golf courses, is home to the
Adventure Cycling Association, and hosts what ''
Runner's World
''Runner's World'' is a global magazine and website for runners of all abilities. It has additionally developed experiential formats, including a digital membership program, called Runner's World+. It is published by Hearst in Easton, Pennsylva ...
'' called the "best overall" marathon in the U.S.
There are also three ski areas within :
Montana Snowbowl,
Discovery Ski Area, and
Lost Trail Powder Mountain. Slightly farther away are
Lookout Pass,
Blacktail Mountain, and
Big Mountain.
A system of public parks was developed in Missoula in 1902 with the donation by lumber baron Thomas Greenough and his wife Tessie. They gave a tract of land along Rattlesnake Creek for
Greenough Park, on the condition that "the land forever be used as a park and for park purposes to which the people of Missoula may ... find a comfortable, romantic and poetic retreat".
In a follow-up nine years later in a letter to the ''
Missoulian'', he stressed his interest in having the park remain in as close to a native state as possible. That request, along with the discovery that non-native
Norway maples were inhibiting the growth of native trees and shrubs such as cottonwoods, ponderosa pines, and Rocky Mountain maples, led to the controversial decision to remove Norway maples from the park with the hope of returning it to its natural state.
In 1924, Bonner Park was created out of John L. Bonner's estate near the university. Today's park has multiple athletic fields and courts, and band shell used by the Missoula City band through the summer. The
Kiwanis
Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. In 1987, the organization ...
club set up a Kiwanis Park downtown in 1934, making it the first of a string of parks that line both sides of the Clark Fork River. One of those parks on the southern bank of the river is McCormick Park, which was created with
WPA funds out of surplus highway land, a parcel from the American Hide and Fur Company, and land donated from the Kate McCormick estate. The park, named for
Washington J. McCormick and his wife, is home to a skate park, aquatics center, a free bike check-out, and a children's fishing pond.
Other popular parks include the Jacobs Island Bark Park, a designated area for dogs to play off-leash; the Montana State veterans' memorial rose garden; Waterwise Garden, a "living laboratory" garden utilizing water conservation techniques; and Splash Montana Waterpark at Playfair Park.
Caras Park
Caras Park is located just south of the historic
Wilma Theatre downtown. It is located on land reclaimed when the Higgins Avenue Bridge was widened from two lanes to four in 1962. Before the reclamation, the Clark Fork River divided to create an island with the north channel's bank extending to nearby buildings such as the Wilma Theatre. The south channel was deepened for the increased water flow and the infilled land later became Caras Park. Events in the park were not common until the early 1980s and permanent fixtures such as "Out to Lunch", which began in 1986. The Missoula Downtown Association took over from Parks and Recreation to manage the park and made improvements to make Caras Park more event-friendly. Seating, event circles, brick plazas, restrooms, and storage structures were added. Large temporary tents were used for events until 1997, when a permanent pavilion was constructed. The park is a hub of city festivities including include "Out to Lunch", the
International Wildlife Film Festival, First Night Missoula, Garden City BrewFest and offered intimate concert settings for artists such as
Jewel,
Chris Isaak,
Santana
Santana may refer to:
Transportation
* Volkswagen Santana, an automobile
* Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles
* Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer
* Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp
** Santana 20
** Santan ...
,
Ziggy Marley, and
B.B. King. Located next to Caras Park is
A Carousel for Missoula, a wooden, hand-carved and volunteer-built carousel; and Dragon Hollow, a children's recreational area adjacent to the carousel.
Government and politics

Missoula's system of government has changed four times since 1883, when an
aldermanic form of government was approved with the town charter. The city adopted a
commission-council form of government in 1911 with the opening of new City Hall and a
council–manager government
The council–manager government is a form of local government commonly used for municipalities and counties in the United States and Ireland, in New Zealand regional councils, and in Canadian municipalities. In the council-manager government, ...
in 1954 before returning to an aldermanic form of government in 1959. Since January 1, 1997, Missoula has been governed in accordance with the Missoula City Charter, which calls for a
mayor–council system of government.
The current system comprises a mayor and city treasurer elected in a citywide vote and 12
city council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...
members who must reside in and are elected from one of six wards, with each ward having two council members. All positions are nominally nonpartisan. Council members and the mayor are elected to four-year terms with council-member elections being staggered to allow only one member from each ward to up for re-election. No term limits exist for either position.
Missoula's state legislative delegation is the second-largest in the
Montana Legislature and is represented by districts 91–100 in the
Montana House of Representatives and districts 46–50 in the
Montana Senate. It has 14
Democrats and only one
Republican in its state legislative delegation
Missoula is often considered the most
liberal city in
Montana
Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
. Though its political leanings may not be unique for a college town, its initiative to make marijuana possession the lowest priority of and symbolic resolutions calling on Congress to withdraw from and to amend the U.S. Constitution to declare that "corporations are often put it at odds with the rest of the state. In 2011, the Montana legislature, with a Republican House majority, attempted to overturn Missoula's marijuana law and revoke its ability to have an anti-discrimination ordinance that included the
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
community. The marijuana repeal was vetoed by then-Governor Brian Schweitzer
and the attempt to repeal the anti-discrimination ordinance died in the State Senate.
In 2020,
Missoula County became the first county in Montana to adopt a county sales tax on gasoline (an option afforded to counties in Montana that had gone unused for several decades). The
Montana Legislature and Governor
Greg Gianforte blocked this decision the following year, repealing the sales tax provision from state law.
Education
Missoula's first school was opened in late 1869 with 16 students from around the region and their teacher Emma C. Slack, who had come to Missoula by a two-month trip by horseback, railroad, and boat from
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
at the invitation of her brother. She resigned two years later upon marrying (the first couple married in Missoula) and was replaced by Elizabeth Countryman, who later married Missoula's first mayor, The first public high school was opened in 1904, but was converted back to a grade school after the Missoula County High School (now
Hellgate High School) was opened in 1908.
After several expansions, Stanford University was commissioned in 1951 to create a master building plan to manage future growth. It suggested purchasing land and building an additional campus at the Garden City Airport's Hale Field, which was gradually being replaced by the
Missoula County Airport, which was then southwest of town. The new school (now
Sentinel High School) was opened in 1957. Initially, the two campuses were separated between upper and lower classmen with upper classmen in the new school, but in 1965, the two campuses became separate high schools.
In 1974, the private
Loyola Sacred Heart Catholic High School was created from a merger of the all-girls Sacred Heart Academy (.1873) and the all-boys Loyola High School (.1912). In 1980, Missoula's third public high school,
Big Sky, was established.
Missoula County Public Schools has two components: Missoula Elementary School District and Missoula High School District. The city of Missoula is divided between the following elementary school districts: Most of Missoula is in Missoula Elementary School District while other portions are in
Hellgate Elementary School District,
DeSmet Elementary School District,
Target Range Elementary School District, and
Bonner Elementary School District. All residents are in the Missoula High School District. The school district numbers of the districts are In Missoula, there are nine public elementary schools (kindergarten to 5th grade), three public middle schools (6th to 8th grades), four public high schools (9th to 12th grades),
and three public schools serving kindergarten to 8th grade.
Missoula also has several private schools including an international school, religious-affiliated schools, as well as Next Step Prep, a theater academy high school operated by the Missoula Children's Theatre.
The University of Montana dominates higher education in Missoula.
The university, established in 1893, was Montana's first, and has the state's second-largest enrollment, with 12,922 students .
The campus houses six colleges and three schools including Montana's first and only law school, the
Alexander Blewett III School of Law. The university is also the location of the state's
Regional Federal Depository Library, and houses the state
Arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
. The
University of Montana College of Technology, established in 1956 and formerly known as the Missoula Vocational Technical Center, offers fast-track learning programs. Multiple vocational programs not affiliated with the university ranging from photography and massage to truck driving also have a presence in Missoula.
Missoula has a
public library
A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...
, the
Missoula Public Library.
Media
Broadcast
Missoula's single–broadcast over–air television media market is the largest in Montana and ranked 165 nationally .
Though Missoula itself is second in population to
Billings, Montana
Billings is the most populous Lists of populated places in the United States, city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, i ...
, Missoula's single-broadcast over-air television media market includes all of
Missoula
Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...
,
Ravalli,
Granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
,
Mineral
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
,
Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
,
Flathead, and
Sanders Counties in the more densely populated western region of Montana and serves over 112,600 television homes .
Missoula is home to three local affiliate channels:
KPAX-TV (CBS/MTN; founded 1970; ),
KECI-TV (NBC; founded 1954 as KGVO-TV; ), and
KTMF-TV (ABC, FOX; founded 1991; ). Also based in Missoula at the University of Montana is (founded 1984; ).
Print and online
Missoula has three main sources of print and digital media: the ''
Missoulian'' (daily), The ''
Missoula Current'' (daily), and ''
Montana Kaimin'' (college). The ''Missoulian'' was founded as a weekly publication in 1870 as ''The Missoula and Cedar Creek Pioneer'' and remains the city's oldest news product.
The ''Missoula Current'' was founded in 2015 and provides local and regional coverage and is the state's largest digital-only news product. The ''MontanaKaimin'' (founded 1891) is distributed for free throughout parts of Missoula with heavy student traffic from the University of Montana, where the newspaper is printed weekly every Thursday during the school year.
Infrastructure
Health care
Missoula has two primary health care facilities:
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center and
Community Medical Center. St. Patrick's was founded in 1873 under the sponsorship of the Sisters of Providence. It is the only
Level II trauma center in western Montana
and has undergone three major expansions since the 1980s. The hospital has 195 acute-care beds and admitted over 9,700 patients in 2003. The name was changed from "St. Patrick Hospital" to "St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center" in 2000 to reflect an increasing involvement with national medical research and education.
The Community Medical Center and its adjacent medical facilities are located near Fort Missoula and is part of a modern complex that includes a nursing home, the Missoula Crippled Children's Center, and private offices.
It was founded in 1922 as Thornton Hospital by doctors Will Thornton and Charles Thornton and has been at its current location since 1972. Although originally a locally owned, nonprofit hospital, it is now owned by a large corporation headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a for-profit entity. It is the only hospital in Western Montana with a separate Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The center is partnered with
Seattle Children's Hospital.
The nearest
Level I trauma center to Missoula is
Harborview Medical Center in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
.
Utilities

The earliest Missoulians drew their water directly from the
Clark Fork River or nearby Rattlesnake Creek. The first water system consisted of a Native American known as One-Eyed Riley and his friend filling buckets of water from the Rattlesnake Creek and hauling them door to door on a donkey cart.
In 1871 city co-founder
Frank Worden began construction of a long pipe and wooden main system that flowed from the Rattlesnake Creek north of the city. With the addition of two small covered reservoirs, the first municipal water system was begun in 1880. With an intake dam built-in 1901 with a settling basin capacity of , the Rattlesnake Creek continued to meet the demands of the city until 1935 when five wells were added to respond to increased summer and fall demand. This system is still maintained as an emergency backup but was discontinued as a primary source after
Giardia
''Giardia'' ( or ) is a genus of anaerobic flagellated protozoan parasites of the phylum Metamonada that colonise and reproduce in the small intestines of several vertebrates, causing the disease giardiasis. Their life cycle alternates be ...
outbreak in 1983. Since then, Missoula has relied on the Missoula Valley
Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...
as the sole source of water. In 1889, the first electrical plant was built by to power his major downtown properties such as the Missoula Mercantile and the
Florence Hotel. In 1905, the Missoula Mercantile (by then owned by
Copper King William A. Clark purchased the water system and consolidated it with its vast electrical holdings to create the Missoula Light and Water Company (ML&W) a year later.
Electricity and water remained bundled after ML&W's sale to the
Montana Power Company (MPC) in 1929. In 1979, MPC sold its water utility holdings as Mountain Water Company to Park Water Company in
Downey, California, which since 2011 has been a subsidiary of
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management.
Carlyle specializes in ...
. In 2015, the City of Missoula was legally granted its right to acquire the water system by exercising its power of eminent domain",
but the decision was upheld by a district court.
Following the deregulation of Montana's
electricity market
An electricity market is a system that enables the exchange of electrical energy, through an electrical grid. Historically, electricity has been primarily sold by companies that operate electric generators, and purchased by consumers or electr ...
in 1997, Montana Power Company began to divest its energy business. MPC sold substantially all its electrical generating assets to the
PPL Corporation in December 1997 and its energy transmission and distribution business to
NorthWestern Corporation in February 2002. Despite filing for bankruptcy in 2002, NorthWestern Corporation's subsidiary NorthWestern Energy is the primary provider of electric and natural gas service to Missoula in addition to the
Rural Utilities Service's Missoula Electric Cooperative.
Local telephone service in the area is provided by
CenturyLink and
Blackfoot Telecommunications. Major cell phone providers include
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
Sprint,
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
, and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
. Allied Waste handles recycling through a program where customers can purchase special blue bags to designate recyclables. Recycling has also been offered by Missoula Valley Recycling since 1992, by Garden City Recycling since 2010 which offers curbside pickup, and by Pacific Steel & Recycling which offers drop-off recycling. Sewer service is handled by the City of Missoula Wastewater Division.
City layout and development

In the mid-1860s, and Frank Worden began plotting what would become the town of Missoula along the Mullan Military Road, which ran parallel to the Clark Fork River. Through downtown Missoula, the route of the road is now Front Street.
It is intersected by Higgins Avenue, to which a bridge across the Clark Fork was added in 1873. The intersection of these two streets became the default center of the city, and remains the numerical center regarding city street addresses. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 led to a housing boom along the tracks, particularly on the northern side where many of the railway workers would reside. When the Higgins Avenue Bridge was replaced in 1893, they debated whether the bridge should continue southwest toward the Bitterroot Valley as it had earlier or due south. Attorneys and had already laid out plots of land five years earlier for what they hoped would be a new town of "South Missoula". The streets there were perpendicular to the Bitterroot Wagon Road. In contrast, Judge Hiram Knowles who owned the land just south of the river preferred the north–south plan and did not want to become part of South Missoula. The result was a along the west side of Higgins Avenue commonly referred to as the "Slant Streets" centered along what is now Stephens Avenue. Stephens Avenue and Brooks Street are the only arterials to traverse the city diagonally along with the Bitterroot Branch of
Montana Rail Link. With the exception of Downtown, the rest of the city, where streets follow the angle of the river, and newer expansions into the hills, strictly follow the
grid plan.
With the establishment of the University of Montana in 1893 and the announcement that the tracks of the
Milwaukee Road
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...
would be located south of the river, houses began to spread quickly throughout the university and south side districts. The area near the university was promoted as high-end and luxurious homes appeared on Hammond Avenue (then nicknamed "Millionaires Row" and known today as Gerald Avenue).
The arrival of Interstate90 in the mid-1960s forced the removal of 60 homes, including the Greenough Mansion. The north side of Missoula became isolated between the Interstate and the tracks while the Greenough Mansion was moved to a South Hills golf course and converted to a restaurant. This dichotomy has prevailed with the North Side feeling neglected by the city while the South Hills became an upscale neighborhood. The Missoula Downtown Master Plan of 2009 emphasized redevelopment of the North Side's former rail yard and the area just south of the tracks.
The city is divided into 18 neighborhood councils, of which all Missoula residents are members. The city further contains 10 historical districts: Downtown Missoula, East Pine Street, Fort Missoula, Lower Rattlesnake, McCormick, Northside, Southside, University Area and, the
campus of the University of Montana.
Trail system
Missoula has an extensive trail system for both commuting and recreation that extends over . The city is actively trying to connect its various sections within the city to each other and to recreational trails extending beyond the city. The heart of the Missoula Commuter Bike Network is the trails along either side of the Clark Fork River that link Downtown with surrounding neighborhoods, the university, city parks, and outlying open space with smooth surfaces and three bicycle/pedestrian bridges. The most southern of these is Milwaukee Trail, which follows the former
Milwaukee Railroad and continues east out of town as the Kim Williams Nature Trail beside Mount Sentinel. The Bitterroot Branch Trail connects to the Riverfront trails west of Downtown and, when completed, will provide a trail from Downtown to Southgate Mall. Near the Bitterroot Branch Trail, but not connected, is the South Avenue Trail on the west side of Reserve Street that connects the Community Medical Center with Fort Missoula, nearby athletic fields, and the Bitterroot River. The South Hills neighborhood has its own system of trails that is also approaching, but not quite meeting, the larger network.
Transportation
Highways
runs east–west along the northern edge of Missoula at the base of the North Hills, with all but a small portion of the city located south of the highway. Completed in 1965 at the expense of 60 homes, the Garden City Brewery, and the Greenough Mansion, I‑90 has four city exits and makes connections with , and
Montana Highway 200.
The original , approved by the
AASHO in 1939 to extend west into Montana, did not include Missoula until the highway was rerouted along State Route6 in October 1959 and was not extended west from Missoula until 1962. The road now crosses Missoula southwest–northeast. serves as a major economic corridor for western Montana, connecting Missoula with the Bitterroot Valley communities to the south and
Flathead Lake
Flathead Lake (, ) is a large natural lake in northwest Montana, United States.
The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Glacial Lake Missoula, Lake Missoula, of the era of the last interglacial. Flathead Lake is a nat ...
,
Kalispell, and
Glacier National Park to the north. , the longest state highway in the United States, enters Missoula from the east and provides access along the Blackfoot River and a direct route to
Great Falls.
Transit
Public transportation in Missoula began as early as 1890 with a horse-drawn streetcar system (electrified in 1910) operated by the Missoula Street Railway Company that connected Downtown Missoula with the university,
Bonner, the fairgrounds, and Fort Missoula. These streetcars were then replaced by buses in 1932 due to cost.
Bus service today is provided by
Mountain Line, a public transit agency created by public vote in 1976 as part of the Missoula Urban Transportation District (MUTD) that began operation in December 1977. Mountain Line operates 14 bus routes within a area, serving Missoula, East Missoula, Bonner, Target Range, Rattlesnake, and the airport. Additionally the line has offered paratransit services since 1991 to assist the disabled, senior van since 2008, and has four park‑and‑ride lots throughout Missoula. Special bus service is offered to the University of Montana through three of the city's park‑and‑ride lots in addition to a late-night UDASH shuttle that offers service between the university and Downtown. a three-year pilot program of zero-fare transportation on all Mountain Line buses began, with the goal of increasing ridership by 45 percent.
Bus lines
Direct intercity ground travel needs are provided by bus carrier
Jefferson Lines
Jefferson Lines (JL or JLI) is a regional intercity bus company operating in 14 states in the Midwest and the West of the United States.
History
The company is operated by Jefferson Partners L.P., located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jefferson P ...
.
Railroads
Intercity rail travel was available from 1883, when the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
began service through Missoula, until 1979 when
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
discontinued its ''
North Coast Hiawatha'' route across southern Montana. In 1901, the Northern Pacific built their
station at the terminus of Higgins Avenue; since 1985, it has been on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. The
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad built their "Pacific Extension" through Missoula, and that
station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
A feasibility study was commissioned by Congress in 2008 to examine the merits of reopening the ''North Coast Hiawatha'', but , the nearest rail station to Missoula is the
Whitefish station of Amtrak's ''
Empire Builder
The ''Empire Builder'' is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great North ...
'', to the north.
Bicycles
In 2009, the Missoula metropolitan statistical area (MSA) ranked as the fifth highest in the United States for percentage of commuters who biked to work (5 percent). In 2013, the Missoula MSA ranked as the tenth lowest in the United States for percentage of workers who commuted by private automobile (77.2 percent). In the same year, 8.5 percent of Missoula area commuters walked to work.
Airport
In 1927, air travel to Missoula began; today the city is served by
Missoula Montana Airport, a public airport run by the Missoula County Airport Authority. It is the largest airport in western Montana, serving 913,198 passengers in 2023. The current building contains three jet bridges and three ground‑level boarding gates.
Notable people
Missoula has produced and been home to a number of notable individuals in varying fields. Its natives and residents are referred to as "Missoulians". In politics,
Jeannette Rankin,
the first woman in Congress, was born and raised in Missoula while Senators
Mike Mansfield,
the U.S.'s longest serving
Senate Majority Leader, and
Max Baucus, Montana's longest serving U.S. Senator both established careers and joined politics while living in the city.
Noted athletes who were born or resided in Missoula include five Olympic medalists,
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...
Quarterback
John Elway,
and former
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...
coach
Larry Krystkowiak.
Filmmaker
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...
,
actor
Dana Carvey,
and award-winning biologist
Leroy Hood were born in Missoula, while
Carroll O'Connor and
J. K. Simmons attended the University of Montana. Composer
David Maslanka lived in Missoula. Musician
Jeff Ament and
YouTuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
,
science communicator, novelist, and entrepreneur
Hank Green
William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American YouTuber, science communicator, novelist, Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, and entrepreneur. He produces the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, a ...
reside in Missoula. Academically, Missoula has been home to Nobel Prize winners
Harold C. Urey and
Steve Running as well as 20th century Montana historian
K. Ross Toole.
Noted names in literature include Native American poet
James Welch,
crime novelist
James Crumley,
former head of the University of Montana's Creative Writing Program
Richard Hugo,
William Kittredge, a western writer and professor of creative writing at the
University of Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...
at Missoula, and
Norman Maclean,
whose ''
A River Runs Through It'' chronicles his life in early 20th-century Missoula.
Joanna Klink, poet and professor at the University of Montana.
Michael Punke, the author of the best-selling novel ''
The Revenant'', also lives in Missoula.
Sister cities
*
Neckargemünd,
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
, Germany
*
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...
, New Zealand
Missoula's Sister City relationship with
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...
, New Zealand, began after Missoula resident and later University of Montana professor Harold Bockemuehl returned from obtaining his PhD from
Massey University
Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...
. The relationship was made official in 1983 after a meeting between then UM President Neil Bucklew and officials from Massey University. Each May, Missoula celebrates "New Zealand Day" in honor of the relationship with rugby, food, and entertainment. Missoula's second Sister City relationship began in 1991 after a
Neckargemünd delegation, led by Mayor Oskar Schuster, visited Missoula following a Fulbright-sponsored faculty exchange between
Heidelberg University and the University of Montana. Every September the Missoula Cultural Council holds an annual "Germanfest" to celebrate German culture and this relationship.
Portrayal in media
Author
Norman Maclean grew up in Missoula and wrote about it in his 1976 autobiographical novella ''
A River Runs Through It''.
The work was adapted into a
1992 motion picture of the same name, directed by
Robert Redford and starring
Brad Pitt and
Craig Sheffer.
''
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town'', a 2015 book by
Jon Krakauer, focused on a series of sexual assault cases between 2010 and 2012 and the way that the Missoula Police Department, the Missoula County Attorney's Office, and the
University of Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...
handled those cases.
Missoula's handling of rape cases sparked a
Justice Department's investigation that found a "pattern of disrespect and indifference toward alleged victims" by Missoula law enforcement, prosecutors, and the university, with scathing blame directed at the Attorney's Office. While being interviewed on
NPR about the book, Krakauer stated, "I don't mean to single out Missoula: Its rape rate is a little less than the national average; I think its problems with dealing with rape are pretty depressingly typical."
Nevertheless, reporting by Krakauer and local and national journalists showed what they characterized as a troubling pattern of authorities mishandling investigations, treating victims with hostility and suspicion, reflexively protecting alleged perpetrators at the expense of victims, declining to prosecute large numbers of credible rape allegations, and creating an atmosphere where victims were unlikely to come forward after an attack. Krakauer placed a significant portion of the blame for the mishandling of rape prosecutions on a single Deputy County Attorney,
Kirsten Pabst, who now serves as the Missoula County Attorney. The book also charted deep divisions within the town about the allegations, particularly those involving football players from the
Montana Grizzlies
The Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz are the nicknames given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana, located in Missoula, Montana, Missoula. The university is a member of the Big Sky Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fieldin ...
.
There is a lengthy study of Missoula in the title essay of British writer
Jonathan Raban's ''Driving Home: An American Journey'': despite writing that on his arrival, "I had the powerful impression that I had driven deep into the Rocky Mountains and somehow arrived in
Rotherham
Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...
or
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...
,"
and that "the overall effect was oddly unsettling; the streets too open for comfort, the town too closed in, inducing mild claustrophobia and agoraphobia at the same time",
he notes the literary heritage of the city and its reputation as a "kindly town" (evidenced by its being a place where "odds and ends naturally collected and cohered").
Missoula is mentioned as being the closest city to the fictional Hope County in ''
Far Cry 5''. The game's second mission involves the player trying to escape the county to reach Missoula.
The Harkema Industrial Park in ''
Project Wingman'', a complex of
ocean platforms, is constructed over a post-Calamity submerged Missoula.
See also
*
USS ''Missoula'', two ships
Notes
References
External links
*
Missoula Visitors BureauMissoula Chamber of Commerce*
Missoula Collection Guide(University of Montana Archives)
City of Missoula (Mont.) Records, 1883-2009(University of Montana Archives)
Cultural heritage resources
Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special CollectionsThe Historical Museum at Fort Missoula's Public Research BoxesMissoula Art Museum's Online Collections Database
{{good article
Cities in Montana
Cities in Missoula County, Montana
Montana placenames of Native American origin
County seats in Montana
Metropolitan areas of Montana
Populated places established in 1860
1866 establishments in Montana Territory