Missoula County, Montana
Genealogy and History



Missoula County History


Source: "The History of Montana" by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Volume 1, 1913
Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy

Hon. F. H. Woody, an eminent pioneer and authority on Montana history, gives the following account of the organization of Missoula county

"By an act of Congress, approved March 2, 1853, the Territory of Oregon was divided, and this portion of it became a portion of Washington Territory. The first legislature of Washington Territory created the county of Clark, named in honor of Captain Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Clark county extended from a point on the Columbia river below Fort Vancouver, to the summit of the Rocky mountains, a distance of some six hundred miles. This portion of the present Territory of Montana was then a portion of Clark county, and was for the first time included within the limits of a county.

"Clark county was afterwards divided, and the county of Skaminia created, and we became a portion of the last named county.

"The legislature then divided Skaminia and created Walla Walla county, and we then became a portion of Walla Walla county, with our county seat located on the land claim of Lloyd Brooks, on the Walla Walla river, in the present Territory of Washington.

"Walla Walla county was afterwards divided and we became a part of Spokane county, with the county seat located at Fort Colville.

"We remained a part of Spokane county until December 14, 1860, when the legislature of Washington Territory divided the county of Spokane, and created the county of Missoula, with the county seat at or near the trading post of Worden & Co., Hell's Gate Ronde.

"The county of Missoula, as first established, embraced all those portions of the present counties of Missoula and Deer Lodge, lying on the west side of the main range of the Rocky mountains. Missoula county remained a portion of Washington Territory until Idaho Territory was organized, on the 3d day of March, 1863, when it became a portion of the territory.

"The first legislature of Idaho created Missoula county with nearly the same boundaries that it has at the present time, and located the county seat at Wordensville. On the 26th day of May, 1864, Congress created Montana Territory, and the first Legislature, which met at Bannack, created, on the 2d day of February, 1865, the county of Missoula, and located the county seat at Hell's Gate. From the foregoing it will be seen that Missoula county has at different times comprised a portion of four territories and five counties."

The name, Missoula, is from the Selish Inmis-sou-let-ka meaning "The River of Awe."

Missoula is one of the most important and populous counties of Montana. It lies in the extreme western portion of the state adjoining Idaho, from which it is separated by the lofty Bitter Root range. The country is mountainous in character, with many fertile valleys. The northernmost point of the county is between the Bitter Root and Coeur d'Alene mountains. In the southern section is the majestic Mission or Sin-Yal-Min range, which culminates in .McDonald and other splendid peaks. Many beautiful lakes are within the canons of this range. The mountains are generally heavily timbered.

The valleys are drained by the Missoula, or Hellgate, the Big Blackfoot, the Swan, the Flathead, and the Jocko rivers with their countless feeders,—the mountain streams.

Western Montana has a climate much more pleasant than is generally supposed by those who live outside of the state. The summers are delightful ; the winters mild. The days are moderately warm in summer, but the nights are always cool. The moisture of the coast and of the central states is lacking, and the atmosphere does not have the oppressive feeling of humid regions. There are cold snaps in winter, but the mercury does not often go below zero. Cold weather is usually accompanied by clear, still atmosphere. The absence of moisture makes the cold less keen, and the occasional low temperature does not cause discomfort.

The following table gives the different temperatures and average monthly precipitation for 1910, taken from government statistics

The average mean temperature for 1910 was 46.4, and for 1909 was 44.2. The total precipitation for 1910 was 13.23 inches, and for 1909 16.35 inches. The rainfall is distributed throughout the year and in considerable quantity during the growing season. The year 1910 was unusually dry. In August there has been an average of over three-quarters of an inch during a period of thirty-three years. May and June are usually the rainy months.

Western Montana, as indeed the entire state, is subject to warm chinook winds. The effect of these winds is to heat the atmosphere, drink up the snow that may have accumulated and carry it off with the blowing breeze to the adjacent mountains, where it is again precipitated. Then it forms in drifts, to be used later by the agriculturist and horticulturist in late summer. The Chinook winds thus serve a double purpose to the state, especially in the mountainous part; they warm the climate, clear the ground so stock may graze, and in addition, take the snow from the lowlands and deposit it higher up, where it remains in drifts until the warm sun of summer slowly brings it to the valleys through the streams.

The chief industries of Missoula county are mining, lumbering, agriculture and horticulture.

The county has many productive valleys. Among these are the Flathead, a part of the Mission or Sin-Val-Min, the Jocko and the Missoula.

The opening of the Flathead (Selish) Indian reservation in 1910 doubled the area of avail-able farm lands. Within the limits of the former reservation are both the Sin-Val-Min and Jocko valleys. The east boundary is marked by the snow-laden peaks of the Sin-Val-Min or Mission range. This reservation is sixty miles long and forty miles wide and contains a million and a half acres, of which there are 111.320 acres of agricultural land. 336.189 grazing land and the remainder mountainous and timbered. In 1910 there were over 500,000 bushels of wheat raised. 1,000,000 bushels of oats, 50,000 bushels of barley and rye. 20,000 tons of timothy and large crops of potatoes. The crop of 1911 was much greater than that of 1910. and at least 20 per cent can be added for 1912.

Shortly after the opening, numerous small towns sprang into existence, some originating from a few Indian cabins gathered around old land marks, and others springing out of the lonely prairie as if by magic. These towns are all progressive and include Poison, Ronan, St. Ignatius, Dixon, Arlee, Ravalli, Camas and Big Arm.

As a rule on each claim of the reservation a part of the land has been broken and planted but the unbroken area far exceeds the land that has been plowed. Every year new lands are brought into cultivation, and when means are provided to ship by railroad, the production of crops in this section will be many times as great.

At present the reservation is accessible only In way of motor and stage lines, which radiate from the different points of the Northern Pacific Railway on the southern boundary to all the important points inland. The Great Northern has a prospective road surveyed from Kalispell to Dixon, directly across the reservation, and many eastern farmers have shown their business sagacity by securing farms, abiding their time until the coming of the railroad, which will doubtless be built in the next few years. The market for reservation grain and products is Missoula and the western coast cities.

Some remarkable crops have been reported from the vicinity of Ronan, the principal town. Spring wheat on new breaking ran from twenty to twenty-five bushels to the acre, winter wheat averaged about thirty bushels, oats yielded forty to seventy bushels and barley about fifty bushels. Larger yields are reported in several instances. A farmer of this vicinity had, at one time, twelve thousand sacks of wheat piled up at his ranch. Vegetables made surprising growths. Potatoes that weighed over three pounds and cabbage over twenty pounds were shown at Ronan. Good crops of hay were cut throughout the reservation.

Missoula county has about seven thousand five hundred acres in orchards and large areas of fruit lands both in the old sections of the county and in the reservation. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and berries are the fruits that are grown in greatest quantities. Missoula is the home of the Mcintosh red apple, the famous fruit that grows to perfection in the Bitter Root, Missoula, Plains and Flathead valleys. Other varieties do equally well and fruit growing is well established as a very profitable industry. Wonderful displays of the many kinds of fruits that flourish in Montana are made annually at the Western Montana Apple Show, which is held at Missoula.

A few years ago the fruit crops sent to eastern markets were from twenty-five to fifty carloads. This increased to one hundred, and in 1911 the output was four hundred and fifty carloads. This does not include local sales. Apples, of course, constitute practically all of these shipments, although the big black Bing and Lambert cherries are shipped to New York in carload lots.

Wide diversity is found in returns from orchards sometimes it is due to conditions of soil, but mostly from lack of care and culture. An experienced orchardist who has a full bearing, ten-year-old tract of twenty acres averages eighty trees to the acre and five boxes to the tree, or four hundred boxes per acre.

Mining is an important factor in the development of Missoula county. "The mineral areas of Missoula county," says the state mine inspector, "are both extensive and attractive, offering as good opportunities to the prospector and to the capitalist as can be found in any of the mineral districts of the Rocky mountain region." Many properties are being worked or explored, and an important development of the year 1911 was the installation of a gold dredge at Kennedy creek. In a recent report on the placer deposits of Libby creek, Lincoln county, and Kennedy creek, Missoula county, Mr. F. C. Schrader of the United States Geological Survey, says that some mining men estimate the gold in the Kennedy creek basin at $18,000,000 In a limited area he estimates $5,000,000 for the Kennedy creek portion of the area examined, and in the basin $11,000,000. The entire district of which Kennedy creek is a portion is roughly estimated by Mr. Schrader to contain about $100,000,000 worth of gold. Many other districts in this section have great undeveloped mineral wealth.

Missoula is the largest lumbering point between St. Paul and Minneapolis to the east, and Seattle to the west. This is one of the principal industries and sources of revenue of western Montana.

The foothills and slopes of the mountain ranges are covered with vast forests of fir, larch and pine. The Big Blackfoot mills, the largest in the state, are located at Bonner, six miles east of Missoula, and are reached by an interurban electric railway. Here also is W. A. Clark's new mill. At Lothrop and Missoula are others of Clark's mills, and the Policy's Lumber Company, just recently established at Missoula. At Hamilton, in the Bitter Root, is another large mill and at the northern end of the Flathead is the second largest mill in Montana. Besides, there are numerous others distributed at various distances. The payrolls of the mills and camps are enormous, keeping a large amount of money in circulation and contributing to the maintenance of other lines of business, especially agriculture.

The towns are Missoula, Bonner, Saltese, St. Regis, Alberton, Dixon, Ravalli and Ronan. Ronan, the chief town in the Flathead reservation, has a population of five hundred. It has a bank, a newspaper, business houses and is looking forward toward the construction of a railroad which will hasten the development of the fertile region of which it is the commercial center. Ravalli and Dixon are growing towns on the reservation. Albertson is a railroad town on the Milwaukee. Saltese is in the mineral and timbered district. St. Regis has a large sawmill, and at Bonner, six miles east of Missoula, where the Big Blackfoot river emerges from a canon, is an electric power plant and one of the largest lumber mills in the northwest, as we have seen.

Missoula, the metropolis of the western part of Montana, is located at the entrance of the Bitter Root valley, which extends to the south, has the Missoula valley adjacent, is close to the Flathead reservation on the north, and the Big Blackfoot valley on the east. Missoula is a well-built, progressive city having modern improvements, good public, business and private buildings, two daily papers, banks with large deposits, electric lights, railroad and power, numerous important business and manufacturing establishments. It has a U. S. land office and is the headquarters of the forestry service for the state. Fort Missoula is in the suburbs. It is fitly called the "Garden City" and is a delightful place of residence.

The Northern Pacific and Milwaukee railroads traverse the county and Missoula is a division point on the former road. The payroll of railroad employees is an important factor in the business of the city. The main line of the Northern Pacific, entering the county near Bonner, runs northwest through Clark's Fork valley ; a branch line extends to the Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, passing through a farming, timbered and mining section, and the Bitter Root branch runs through the fertile Bitter Root valley. The Milwaukee road parallels the other road from the eastern boundary to the city and crosses the Bitter Root mountains into Idaho. An electric railway through the Bitter Root valley and another from Missoula to Flathead lake are transportation facilities that are expected to be supplied soon. Missoula is the seat of the University of Montana, which in the few years since its establishment has grown to be an institution of usefulness and influence. Missoula has experienced a remarkable growth in a decade. The population in 1900 was 4.366 and 12,869 in 1910 an increase of 195 per cent.

The population of Missoula county in 1900 was 13,964, and 23,596 in 1910, an increase of 69 per cent. Sanders county was taken from Missoula between the two census periods. The assessed valuations of property in 1908 was $12,541,120, and $17,470,449 in 1911, or an increase of 39 per cent. The vacant and unappropriated public lands were 1,461,710 acres in 1908, and 1,429,247 in 1911.

[Source: "The History of Montana" by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Volume 1, 1913 - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

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