It had been about 12 years since my wife and I spent any time in Missoula, a small city in western Montana. Dring our last visit we were left with the impression that Missoula was a college town, a nice community that was struggling. Many of the old downtown buildings were shuttered. There was little evidence of new development.
My, how the town has changed! There has been a huge influx of new residents into city — mostly people fleeing large coastal urban areas — and with them comes a lot of money. The downtown area is gentrified, with many of the older buildings being remodeled and containing new restaurants, bars and shops. It has been quite a transformation!
We spent about a half day wandering around downtown Missoula last fall, snapping photos as we went. Below is some of what we saw:
The garage shown above had great art-deco styling. I love the contours and look of the building. Surprisingly, it still functions as a garage, and has not been converted into a restaurant or coffee shop!
Readers of this blog know that I am fond of photographing signs. There’s a lot of interesting signs in Missoula. Take a look at some of these:
(Note the weathervane at the top — shaped like a great blue heron)
The city still has it’s beautiful setting along the Clark Fork River, just below its confluence with the Blackfoot River. The river is a popular place for locals to kayak, raft or float with inner tubes in the summer. There are bike and walking paths along its bank and these are very popular during all four seasons.
I enjoy fishing from time to time and had never seen a great two-person raft like the one in the photo below. I need to look into getting one for myself. What a great way to flyfish the rivers in the area!
I close this piece with a statue of a statue of a bike situated along the bike path, framed by fall colors.
It’s nice to see Missoula prospering, but I had more fun in it when it was just a plain old struggling town.
