Historical Museum at Fort Missoula

The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula occupies part of an army post founded in 1877, on the southwest side of Missoula. The museum runs a 32-acre historic park with more than 20 preserved buildings and structures, a main gallery with rotating exhibits, and grounds that are open and free at any time. Fort Missoula was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 1987, and today the old post is shared by the museum, federal agencies and Missoula County.

The fort was built during the conflicts with the region's tribes, including the Nez Perce, and was an open post without walls. In 1888 the 25th Infantry Regiment, a Black regiment with white officers, arrived. In 1896 Lt. James Moss organised its bicycle corps to test bicycles for military use, and in 1897 the corps rode about 1,900 miles to St. Louis; the Army concluded that bicycles would not replace horses.

The fort's hardest chapter came in World War II, when it held more than 2,200 Italian and Japanese nationals in an internment camp. The Italian detainees called it "Camp Bella Vista". The museum's newest permanent exhibit, Far From Home: The Internee Experience at Fort Missoula, follows ten men who were wrongfully imprisoned here.

The museum is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Mondays. Its own pages give both Tuesday to Saturday and Tuesday to Sunday, so call 406-728-3476 before a Sunday visit. The outbuildings open from May through October during museum hours, which means mid-October is close to the last chance this year to see inside them. The museum closes on major holidays except July 4. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for students, with a family maximum of $15; Missoula County residents, members and children under 6 get in free.

Allow about two hours to see the gallery and walk the grounds. The site is shared with other agencies and Missoula County, so stay on the museum's paths and signed areas. On a fine day, start with the internment exhibit indoors and then walk out to the historic buildings, which give a clearer sense of how big the post was.