Like many other U.S. Army outposts in the 19th century, Fort Missoula was built to provide a military presence during the Indian Wars. "There was a large Native American presence in the Bitterroot Valley, to the south of [Missoula], the Salish tribe," says Tate Jones, director of the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History.
While the conflict was not as bloody, it still involved the removal of the Salish tribe to the Flathead Reservation north of Missoula through the 1855 Treaty of Hellgate. However, the tribe did not actually move until ordered by the government in 1871, and it wasn't until 1891 when Chief Charlo was finally pressured to move out of the valley. The fort was built in 1877 after lobbying by Missoula residents who also saw the economic benefits of a military post, which would bring federal contracts, Jones said.
According to the Northern Rockies Heritage Center, two companies of the 7th Infantry Regiment were the first to be posted at the fort. The first military action taken involved the 1877 Nez Perce War, which took place throughout the region as the Army fought the Nez Perce tribe.
Afterward the 25th Infantry Regiment, the "Buffalo Soldiers," was posted to Montana, with a few companies and the headquarters unit posted at Fort Missoula. It was one of the early racially segregated units composed of Black soldiers.
In 1895 the fort received a mission to experiment with bicycle troops, with the longest trek going to St. Louis in 1897. But with the advent of the 1898 Spanish-American War and the internal combustion engine, bicycle soldiers were never put into action.
"For the next 20 years or so, the fort is in search of a mission, the frontier period is over [and] the Army would like to be where the action is," Jones says. Despite trying to shutter the fort, locals managed to prevent its closure for the time being, he adds.
By 1915 the fort had been rebuilt and expanded with Mission Revival-style buildings, and during World War I served to train Army mechanics. Reorganization in 1921 led to the posting of the 4th Infantry Regiment, who also supervised the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Fort Missoula received a different job during World War II as an internment camp for 2,200 Japanese and Italian nationals.
Jones says the Japanese were held for six months, while the Italians were held for three years until Italy surrendered in 1943. It also was a military prison, where soldiers undergoing or who had gone through court martial were incarcerated from 1944 until 1947, he says.
An exhibit explains how the USS Missoula and Missoula native PFC Louis Charlo were involved in the first Iwo Jima flag raising in WWII at the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History in Missoula, Montana on September 16, 2023. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Michael Hoge)
After 1947, the Army National Guard and Reserve took over, most notably with the headquarters of the 443rd Field Artillery Battalion, equipped with the M7 Priest self-propelled howtizer (one is on display at the museum). But by the 1970s, the preservation era began, with the establishment of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula.
The National Guard has a much smaller presence today at the fort, having moved most of its operations and equipment to another part of Missoula; but it still owns a few buildings in the complex.
Today, the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History occupies one of the Fort Missoula buildings, and ties in local military history with that of the U.S. There is an exhibit on the U.S. Navy transport USS Missoula, as its flag was the first raised on the Japanese island Iwo Jima during World War II. Another section covers PFC Louis Charlo, a Marine and Salish Indian from Missoula who was with the patrol that raised the first flag and did the second, and more well-known, flag raising.
Jones says the fort's preservation battles are not over though, despite the interest in saving local history. A developer is trying to gain approval to build condos around the hospital; this was rejected by the Missoula Historic Preservation Commission because of special rules related to the Fort Missoula complex. A website for the proposed project, however, claims it would preserve and save the structure from further deterioration.
For more information, visit fortmissoula.org.
Various weapons and other items are displayed inside the an arms room at the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History in Missoula, Montana on September 16, 2023. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Michael Hoge)