MISSOULA, a city of western Montana, U.S.A., on the Clark Fork of the Columbia river, at the mouth of the Bitter Root; the county seat of Missoula county, the seat of the State university, and the metropolis of the western part of the State. It is on Federal highways Jo and 93, and is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific and the Northern Pacific rail ways. Pop. (1920) was 12,668 (86% native white) ; 1930 Federal census 14,657. The city lies on a broad plain (the bed of a glacial lake) 3,223 ft. above sea-level. The steep eastern wall of the valley is formed by Mount Jumbo and University mountain (Mount Sentinel), which rise abruptly over the city; and 5 or 6 m. to the west is the Bitter Root range. The university (opened in 1895) occupies a campus of zoo ac. at the foot of Mount Senti nel. Its property is valued at $2,250,000. The enrolment in 1927-28 was 2,272. Affiliated is the Montana School of Re ligion (organized 1924). On the Bitter Root river, 2 m. S.W.
of the city, is Ft. Missoula, one of the important military posts of the mountain region; and 18 m. west is the Flathead Indian reservation. The city has railroad shops, an oil refinery and other manufacturing industries, with an output in 1925 valued at $3,870,703. The first settlement in this region was made in 1841, when Father De Smet founded the Mission of St. Mary where Stevensville now stands (3o m. S. of Missoula). The area now covered by Missoula county was included in the Territory of Oregon from 1848 to 1853, in the Territory of Washington from 1853 to 1863, in Idaho Territory for part of 1863 and of 1864, and became a part of Montana when that territory was organized in 1864. The city was founded in 1865 and incorporated in 1883. Settlers were so isolated that the result of the presi dential election of Nov. 1856, was not known until the following April.