At an elevation of 3200 feet, the city of Missoula began as the settlement of Hell Gate in 1860, when entrepreneurs C. P. Higgins and Francis Worden recognized trading opportunities and opened a log store in the valley.

The search for gold and the completion of the Mullan Road in 1863 opened up travel from Fort Benton, Montana, to Walla Walla, Washington, bringing people to the Valley. The settlement became known as Missoula, taken from a Salish Indian word meaning "near the cold, chilling waters."

Today, Missoula serves as a center for education, technology, medicine, retail and the arts for over 100,000 residents. Missoula has a total trade area population of 340,000 people, and is the largest metropolitan area in western Montana. Missoula is also the home of the University of Montana. Located at the base of Mount Sentinel and on the banks of the Clark Fork River, the U of M's 200 acre campus is one of the most scenic in the nation, and adds an additional 15,000 residents to the city during the academic year.

For people visiting for the first time, be sure to visit Missoula's downtown. Once a neglected area of the city, Missoula's downtown was revitalized in the 1980’s with the creation of an urban renewal district. Today, the downtown successfully combines a thriving business district with scenic parks, riverfront trails, and a fully enclosed carousel featuring 38 hand-carved ponies. Missoula’s downtown is a popular destination for Out to Lunch, a weekly summer lunchtime entertainment extravaganza. Just across the Clark Fork River you'll find one of the city's two new aquatics centers, and the recently completed professional baseball stadium, home of the Missoula Osprey baseball team.

How about Missoula's weather? Summers are hot, so make sure your air conditioning works. Expect temperatures between 85 and 100 degrees during the summer well into the evening hours. Missoula's dry climate provides for comfortable overnight temperatures, and afternoon convective heating and rising mountainous terrain often create impressive late afternoon lightning storms around the city. Days are longer here as there is still light in the sky until almost 11PM in June and July.

In the winter, the Continental Divide shields the Missoula area from much of the severe, cold arctic air that moves down from Canada. Many of the cold waves that slam into eastern Montana miss the city, but occasionally the cold arctic air spills over the Divide. When this happens, cold air is funneled through Hellgate Canyon into Missoula. Fortunately, it isn't very often that the cold, arctic air that blasts the eastern and central parts of Montana actually reaches Missoula. Because of the mountains to the west, many pacific storm systems begin turning north near Spokane and head up towards Kalispell, or they lose their energy before reaching Missoula. For all these reasons, Missoula really is the "banana belt" of Montana. Missoula has a relatively dry climate year round, averaging only 14 inches of precipitation annually, the majority of which falls in the spring months of May and June. The valley doesn't receive much snow, at least by Montana standards. Moreover, the warmer weather in Missoula frequently prevents snow from remaining on the ground for extended periods. Typically, snow doesn't start accumulating until late December, and generally gives way to warmer spring temperatures in March and April.

We hope you enjoyed this tour of the Garden City.