The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula — Attraction in Missoula

Years ago my father made the mistake of donating his father's coaches hall of fame award to the historical museum. his father was Guy Stegner. Stegner field behind sentinel high school is named after him. Whenever dad would visit me in missoula we'd go the museum to see if the plaque was on display. it never was. years later I contacted the museum and asked for it's return to our family. they told me absolutely not. they even claimed that they knew what my father had wanted. actually I knew what he wanted. he wanted it back in the family. they immediately got the county attorney involved and kept consistently blowing me off. at one point they wanted me to use an online portal in the bay area to pay for a search. I refused. when my husband and I helped his daughter purchase a home in phoenix we had used an online portal and some of our personal information was stolen. the board chair at one point tried to tell me that he knew what my father wanted. My response was unless he had a direct line into my parents graves at the western montana veterans cemetery he didn't know what my dad wanted but I did he wanted it back in the family. i had expected the museum to treat me with at least minimal courtesy but that didn't happen. their responses were both rude and unexpected. eventually, I contacted the montana coaches association who awarded the original plaques. they were great to work with. they were polite, kind and helpful. in fact they were everything that the historical museum was not. oddly at some point a student who attended hellgate high school with my oldest son. found my comments about the museum . stole them from my page, and share them on facebook with some very nasty comments about me. it was an odd expreince at best. and difficult to understand the ugly hostility and comments he expressed towards me. regardless. i managed to get our family heirloom back and had an accurate copy made by all american trophy. who apparentl aren't huge fans of the museum or the director. in fact when all america trophy was making me my copy the museum director came in and wanted to take the award back. the guys at all american trophy told him no that they would have to talk to me. thank goodness at least someone I worked with had...

Very interesting sprawling location just outside of Missoula. Appears to be an ongoing work in progress, as there are many items and artifacts that seem to be awaiting further development. Start in the museum, housed in an original building - see the video that covers the history of the fort. Then do the museum. Very interesting. For instance, I never knew that the government once tried bicycles as a means of transportation for the army. So much so, that they had an entire unit of Buffalo Soldiers who peddled all the way to St. Louis - some 1900 miles! They decided that the bike would never replace the horse. :) Then proceed to the grounds. 35 acres of original and collected buildings. The are original barracks that were used to inter the Japanese during WWII, but they were closed for remodel when we were there. There is a trolley barn that houses an old Missoula trolley, but it was closed when we were there. Then proceed to the trains and other equipment, and don't miss the old relocated Forest Service Lookout Tower. Closed to enter, but interesting to look at. Finish up by driving around the old fort grounds and looking at the original officers quarters that are now used by governmental agencies. Then find your own hidden treasures. The place is interesting, and I'm sure will see continued improvements and areas...

We very nice small Museum clearly in the growing phase. Inside the building were lots of well-done exhibits of local area history just like you're hoping to see. Plan to spend at least an hour in the main building before I'm going outside to the lumber and Equipment exhibits. They have a forest service observation tower that was moved when it was abandoned and set up here. A shay locomotive that it looks like they're thinking about firing up judging by the work, lots of interesting logging cranes and other tractor equipment from the 1900s 1950s all available to walk through look at it up close to without interference. They have a railroad Depot display with a model train layout, a demonstration lumbermill that they actually operate and lots of other outdoor displays plan to spend a couple hours Outdoors as well as the hour indoors. For a town this size this is a great museum and if you're into this while worth the stop. Just around the corner is a military museum for the area as well so you can spend nearly a day here...