Missoula

Situated in a broad valley with three rivers--the Clark Fork, the Blackfoot, and the Bitterroot--is Missoula, the second largest city in Montana. The city is the hub of commercial, governmental, educational, recreational, cultural, and health resources in the western Montana region. Missoula was originally founded in 1860 as Hellgate Village, four miles west of present-day Missoula on the current Mullan Road. The original founders moved to the present site, what is now downtown Missoula on the Clark Fork River, built a mill (1864-1865), and called the site Missoula Mills. This mill, along with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, the establishment of the state university in 1893, and the growth of the timber industry, enabled the town to grow on both sides of the Clark Fork River. Through photographs, Images of America: Missoula follows the growth of Missoula into the city it is today, with a population of over 60,000.