The Missoula Valley is Rich in Cultural
& Historical Treasures
Downtown Missoula
No place like it anywhere else. On the Clark Fork River next to several parks and scenic hiking and biking trails. A collection of specialty shops, stores, restaurants, lounges, art galleries, antique stores, and service businesses. Old time flavor, with a new fell. The city's finest dining opportunities are here, as well as a selection oflively night spots and bars. Culture can be found on every corner: art galleries, cinema, theatre, and live music.
Visit missouladowntown.com for more information.
Area Museums
Art Museum of Missoula 406-728-0447
Museum Historical Museum at Fort Missoula 406-728-3476
Museum Museum of Mountain Flying 406-721-3644
Museum Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Wildlife Visitor Center 800-CALL-ELK
Museum Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History 406-549-5346
Registered Historic Site Smokejumper Visitor Center 406-329-4900 Museum
Carousel for Missoula
Ride the first fully hand-carved Carousel built in America in the last sixty years and enjoy numerous special events throughout the year at Caras Park. Visit carrousel.com
Southgate Mall
The only enclosed regional shopping center west of the continental divide in Montana! Southgate Mall is a showcase of over 100 premium retailers and restaurants located in a newly renovated environment. The center attracts over 7 million customers a year and is home to four major department stores including Herberger's, Dillard's, JCPenney, Sears as well as a super sporting goods store Bob Ward & Sons. Relax, browse and enjoy shopping at all your favorite stores including GAP, Abercrombie & Fitch, Eddie Bauer, Victoria's Secret, Express, Bath and Body Works, GAP Kids, Gymboree, Anchor Blue, Pacific Sunwear, Footlocker, and Champs just to name a few!
Glacial Lake Missoula & The Ice Age Floods
courtesy of Mark Alan Wilson and The Nature Center
About 12,000 years ago, the valleys of western Montana lay beneath a lake nearly 2,000 feet deep. Glacial Lake Missoula formed as the Cordilleran Ice Sheet dammed the Clark Fork River where it entered Idaho. The rising water behind the glacial dam weakened it until water burst through in a catastrophic flood that raced across Idaho, Oregon, and Washington toward the Pacific Ocean. Over the course of centuries, Glacial Lake Missoula filled and emptied in repeated cycles, leaving its story embedded in the land.Thundering waves and chunks of ice tore away soils and mountainsides, scoured out the scablands of eastern Washington, and carved the Columbia River Gorge. The floods left a visual legacy that can be seen all along its path, though few places are as grand as the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge. The floodwaters scoured and steepened the walls of the Gorge. Creek junctions with the Columbia were torn away, leaving the creeks to plunge over the lip of the newly cut gorge in a series of spectacular waterfalls. The impact from Glacial Lake Missoula and the Ice Age Floods can be seen in parts of Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Testifying to the cataclysm are the ancient shorelines, ripple marks, scoured lakes, dry channels, and waterfalls that are still visible after nearly 12,000 years. Without seeing this evidence it is hard to imagine the enormity of the geologic event. Find out more at glaciallakemissoula.org.
Lewis and Clark Trail - Missoula
Missoula, at the mouth of Hellgate Canyon, straddles the route the Salish Indians traveled to reach the Great Plains to hunt buffalo. Lewis and Clark later followed the same route through the canyon and camped west of its entrance on the site of present-day Missoula.
Travelers Rest State Park
This point along the Bitterroot River south of present-day Lolo was a camp for the expedition on both legs of the trip. They rested here at the mouth of Lolo Creek in 1805 before setting out on another grueling trip, this time on the Lolo Trail
Lolo Hot Springs
The expedition stopped at Lolo Hot Springs on both legs of the journey. Local tribes had used the site for centuries, and it was also a valuable source of water for wildlife as Clark observed on September 13, 1805.
Lolo Trail and Lolo Pass Visitor Center
This Indian trail across the Bitterroot Mountains was used by western indians to reach the eastern plains buffalo hunting grounds for centuries before Lewis and Clark arrived. Ross' Hole at Sula Near Sula is a sacred "medicine tree," with a ram's horn embedded in its side; explanations of how it got there are the source of many Indian legends.
More on the Lewis and Clark Trail in Missoula
http://lewisandclark.state.mt.us/
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