The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula hosts four separate indoor gallery spaces: Main Gallery, Orientation Gallery, North Gallery and Heath Gallery. Exhibits change throughout the year, highlighting many different aspects of Missoula County’s History.
For more information and a virtual tour of our current exhibits please select one of the galleries below.
The Road to Today: 150 Years of Missoula’s History
Permanent Exhibit
Main Gallery
Explore Missoula’s development from its founding in 1866 to today. Beginning as a small trading post, Missoula quickly became the largest permanent White settlement in the area. In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in Missoula, cementing its position as the most important trading post in the area. Through the exhibit, discover the importance of the lumber industry in Missoula’s history and find out how Missoula became home to the University of Montana, the first university in the state.
The exhibit also takes a deep dive into the story of Fort Missoula itself. Meet the 25th Infantry bicycle corps, who in 1897 rode all the way from Fort Missoula to St. Louis as part of a test to see how well bicycles would perform as army transportation. Learn how Fort Missoula was transformed during the Great Depression into a regional training camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Finally, hear the stories of the more than 2000 Japanese and Italian men imprisoned at Fort Missoula during WW2, when it served as a Department of Justice Alien Detention Center.
Walk through the gallery:
Click the below image for a virtual walk through the exhibit. For full screen click the 
.
360° Photos by MCAT
Brick & Mortar Missoula: Making a City One Brick at a Time
Open April 2025 – January 2027
Heath Gallery
Explore Missoula County’s small business history. This exhibit features businesses from the past and the present and provides a glimpse into the way Missoulians lived, shopped and played. You’ll discover hometown hotspots like Rockin Rudy’s and Highlander Brewing and nostalgic faves like Uptown Diner. Drop in and create your own business sign, tag the wall with your favorite Missoula business or sit down for a photo at the bar!
Walk through the gallery:
Click the below image for a virtual walk through the exhibit. For full screen click the
360° Photos by David Eggebraaten
MAPPING MISSOULA BUSINESSES
When we started looking at the collection to identify objects that represent Missoula’s vast business history, we knew that there was simply no way we could put everything on display. These artifacts and businesses are still integral to our past and we wanted to find a new way to share them with visitors and researchers alike. In partnership with the Missoula County Map Missoula project, the museum brought in a new Browman collections intern to create a new digital database to highlight these items. Using the portal on the screen here, you can see more of our collections and learn more about the businesses we know about throughout Missoula’s history.
You can use this database in several different ways:
- If you know of a particular business in Missoula and you want to see if we have any artifacts related to it, just type the business name into the search bar.
- If you know of a business TYPE in Missoula (ex: car dealership or hotel), you can type that business type into the search bar.
- If you want to just fly around Missoula to see what businesses existed where, you can scroll through the map with your finger. Tapping on one of the icons will show you the businesses that existed in that location and what objects we have related to them.
Everyday Treasures
Open September 2025 – January 2028
North Gallery
It’s not every day you turn 50! To celebrate its golden anniversary, the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula presents Everyday Treasures, showcasing over 400 of the Museum’s unique and meaningful artifacts donated during the first decade of the Museum’s collecting. These seemingly ordinary items provide a glimpse into the past-illustrating the story of early Montana, the people who lived here and how they engaged with their families, friends, environment and community. Everyday Treasures not only highlights significant artifacts from the Museum’s first decade, but also offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the Museum preserves the personal and historical items that matter most to our community.
Discover what there is to see at the museum in our Orientation Gallery, a one-stop shop for information about HMFM. Watch our on-site Orientation Video to learn about Missoula’s history and how the museum came to be. See the latest donations to our permanent collection in our Recent Acquisitions object case. Pick up scavenger hunts and activity sheets for the young and young-at-heart.
This gallery also serves as a classroom and as a home for short-term exhibits throughout the year.
Want to start getting oriented early? Here are some links to things you might want to visit when you’re here:
- HMFM’s grounds consist of a 32 acre park and over 20 historic structures! Take the virtual grounds tour here to prepare.
- Print out your own scavenger hunts ahead of time, or save paper and download them onto your own device before arriving.
- Read about some of the different eras of history that Fort Missoula has witnessed. Which one are you most excited to learn more about?
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