Condon is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

Missoula County Missoula County is a county located in the state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 117,922, making it Montana's third most populous county. Its county seat and most populous city is Missoula. The county was founded in 186 ...

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 ...

, United States. Located along the Swan River and

Montana Highway 83 Montana Highway 83 (MT 83) is a north–south state highway in Flathead, Lake, and Missoula counties in Montana, United States, that connects Montana Highway 200 (MT 200) in Clearwater (east of Missoula) with Montana Highw ...

, Condon is situated between the

Swan Range The Swan Range is a mountain range in western Montana in the United States. Its peaks typically rise to around . The range is bounded by the South Fork Flathead River to the east, the Flathead River to the north and northwest, the Swan River t ...

to the east and the

Mission Mountains The Mission Mountains or Mission Range are a range of the Rocky Mountains located in northwestern Montana in the United States. They lie chiefly in Lake County and Missoula County and are south and east of Flathead Lake and west of the Swan R ...

to the west, providing ready access to the

Bob Marshall Wilderness The Bob Marshall Wilderness Area is a congressionally-designated wilderness area located in Western Montana region of the United States. It is named after Bob Marshall (wilderness activist), Bob Marshall (1901–1939), an early forester in the f ...

and

Mission Mountains Wilderness The Mission Mountains Wilderness is located in the U.S. state of Montana. Created by an act of Congress in 1975, the wilderness is within the Swan Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest. U.S. Wilderness Areas do not allow motori ...

, respectively. Its population was 285 as of the 2020 United States census, down from 343 in 2010. Condon is the site of a U.S.

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 ...

, using ZIP Code 59826, which opened on July 1, 1952. It is named for James L. Condon, a Corvallis-area logger and farmer.

Mission Mountain School Mission Mountain School was a therapeutic boarding school for girls located in Condon, Missoula County, Montana. It operated from October 1, 1990, to August 16, 2008. On that date, the school graduated its last class and ceased operation, anno ...

was located in the community and the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

operates an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

in Condon.

Geography

Condon is in northern Missoula County, by highway north 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), ...

, 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 ...

, and south of

Kalispell Kalispell (, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: Kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in Montana and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. Among cities in Montana, ...

. Elevations in the community along the Swan River range from in the north to in the south, and to the east the elevation rises to at the base of the Swan Range. Via the Swan River, Condon is within the watershed of the

Flathead River The Flathead River (, , ), in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Flathead Lake, then after a journey of , empties into the Cla ...

. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the Condon CDP has a total area of , of which , or 0.86%, are water.

Climate

This

climatic Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorolog ...

region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the

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 ...

system, Condon 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 ...

, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The local weather station is located at the USFS Condon Work Center. The area has a

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfb''), with warm summers and cold, snowy winters.

Education

It is in the Swan Valley Elementary School District and the Missoula High School District. The Missoula Public Library has a branch location in Condon.

Media

The ''Seeley-Swan Pathfinder'' is the newspaper for Condon, Seeley Lake,

Ovando Ovando is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alfredo Ovando Candía (1918–1982), Bolivian general, president and dictator *Clementina Díaz y de Ovando (1916–2012), Mexican writer and researcher *Diego de Cáceres y Ovando, Sp ...

, and other towns in the area. It is published weekly.

Demographics

References

Census-designated places in Missoula County, Montana Census-designated places in Montana Unincorporated communities in Montana Unincorporated communities in Missoula County, Montana {{MissoulaCountyMT-geo-stub