Missoula InformationMissoula is located in western Montana almost smack in the middle. Missoula is known as the Garden City. Maple trees line the streets in the University neighborhood. In a small valley with Mount Jumbo and Mount Sentinel sporting the L and the M Formerly known as the Glacial Lake Missoula. The first inhabitants of the Missoula area were American Indians from the Salish tribe. They called the area "Nemissoolatakoo," from which "Missoula" is derived. Their first encounter with whites came in 1805 when the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the Missoula Valley. There were no white settlements in the Missoula Valley, however, until 1860 when C. P. Higgins and Francis Worden opened a trading post on the Blackfoot River near Hellgate Canyon, on the eastern edge of the valley. The completion of the Mullan Road, connecting Fort Benton, Montana, with Walla Walla, Washington, and passing through the Missoula Valley meant fast growth for the burgeoning city. Further accelerating the growth of the new town were the establishment by the U.S. Army of Fort Missoula in 1877, and the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883.
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