Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center

The Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center sits at the US Forest Service's Aerial Fire Depot, beside Missoula Montana Airport on the west side of town. It belongs to the largest smokejumper base in the country, home to the wildland firefighters who parachute into remote country to reach a fire while it is still small. The visitor center itself is a small museum; the real reason to come is the guided tour of the working base behind it.

Exhibits cover the men and women who have fought fire from the air since 1939: jump suits and parachutes, cargo drops, training and aircraft, with murals, short videos and a reconstructed fire lookout tower built in 1938. The free tour, which takes about 45 minutes, goes into the parachute loft, where jumpers pack and repair their own chutes, and the ready room where they suit up, and passes the National Smokejumper Memorial. In summer the jump planes are often on the ramp outside, and if a fire call comes in you may see a load of jumpers sent out.

The first fire jump in the United States was made on July 12, 1940, by Rufus Robinson and Earl Cooley, who flew from the Forest Service camp at Ninemile, about 30 miles northwest of Missoula, and landed on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho. The operation later moved into Missoula. On August 5, 1949, a crew flew from Missoula's Hale Field to a fire in Mann Gulch, north of Helena; thirteen firefighters died, twelve of them smokejumpers. The disaster reshaped how firefighters are trained, and Norman Maclean wrote about it in Young Men and Fire.

For 2026, Visit Montana lists the center as open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with the tour free. Other listings give different daily hours, so treat any schedule as provisional. Outside summer, visits are limited or by appointment, and Glacier Country's listing asks winter visitors to call at least two weeks ahead. In mid-October the summer schedule has ended.

This is an active fire base, not a museum with fixed staffing, and tours can be shortened or moved when crews are busy. Call 406-329-4934 before you drive out, and book ahead if you are a group of ten or more. It pairs easily with a flight in or out of MSO, since the base is a few minutes from the terminal.