MISSOULA DOWNTOWN HERITAGE INTERPRETIVE PLAN
JANUARY 2020
Prepared for the Missoula In collaboration with the City of Missoula Historic Preservation Office and Downtown Foundation Downtown Missoula Partnership. Supported by a grant from the Montana by Historical Research Department of Commerce Associates, Inc. We acknowledge that we are in the homelands of the Salish and Kalispel people. We offer our respect for their history and culture, and for the path they have always shown us in caring for this place for the generations to come.
The confluence of Rattlesnake Creek and the Clark Fork. In Salish it is known asNł ay (or in long form, Nł a y c cˇ s t m ), meaning Place of Small Bull Trout. This place-name is used by Salish speakers to refer to the city of Missoula as a whole. In the background is the mountain known in Salish as Es Moq˙ w, meaning It’s a Mountain—akin to New Yorkers referring to their hometown simply as “the City.” Credit: Séliš-Ql’ispé Culture Committee TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ...... 5
PART 1: FOUNDATION ...... 15
Purpose and Guiding Principles 16
Interpretive Goals 17
Themes 17
Interpretive Theme Matrices 21
Setting and Audiences 25
Issues and Influences Affecting Interpretation ...... 27
PART 2: EXISTING CONDITIONS ...... 28
Interpretation in Downtown Missoula ...... 29
Information and Orientation 30
Audience Experience 31
Programming ...... 33
Potential Partners 33
PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS 41
Introduction 42
Actions Related to the Connectivity of Downtown Interpretation ...... 43 Actions Related to Special Events ...... 45
Actions Related to the Missoula Downtown Master Plan 45
Actions Related to Pre-Visit/Distance Interpretation 47
Actions Related to Interpreting Many Perspectives and Underrepresented Heritage . . 48
Actions Related to Audience Experience ...... 52
Actions Related to Program Administration 55
Actions Related to Scholarship ...... 57
Actions Related to Additional Interpretative Elements 57
Actions Related to Collaboration ...... 57
Actions Related to Educators and Youth Outreach 59
Actions Related to General Outreach and Marketing 60
Recommended Implementation Plan 61
Summary ...... 75
PART 4: PLANNING RESOURCES ...... 76
HRA Project Team ...... 77
Interpretive Planning Advisory Committee ...... 77
Acknowledgments ...... 77
Definitions 77
Select Interpretation Resources 78
Select Topical Resources ...... 78 INTRODUCTION
A portion of “Heart of Missoula” completed in 2005 by Hadley Ferguson. Credit: HRA
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 5 Missoula Textile is a Downtown Missoula heritage business, having been in operation for more than 100 years. Credit: HRA
6 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates As the downtown cultural landscape evolves during this pivotal time, Missoula is presented with an opportunity to both embrace change and to celebrate the characteristics and values that make its downtown unique — its heritage.
Downtown Missoula is undergoing a period of cultivates sociocultural ties to the community. unprecedented growth and redevelopment. A In the most fundamental sense, interpretive flurry of construction activity is bringing forth planning is about identifying the meaning exciting development in the form of new and behind natural and cultural resources and remodeled hotels, housing, businesses, shops, finding ways to communicate that meaning to restaurants, and even a library. The recently the public. Interpretive planning helps historic completed Downtown Master Plan presents a sites, museums, and heritage areas—like far-reaching vision for community design. As Downtown Missoula—consider ideas, make the downtown cultural landscape evolves during choices, and set priorities about interpretation this pivotal time, Missoula is presented with and educational programming. an opportunity to both embrace change and to celebrate the characteristics and values that The Missoula Downtown Heritage Interpretive make its downtown unique—its heritage. Plan is designed to guide downtown heritage interpretation by encouraging audiences Interpretive planning is an essential first to make meaningful connections to the step in preserving the heritage and distinct shared human experience represented there. characteristics of Downtown Missoula, It identifies interpretive goals and issues, particularly during times of growth and examines existing conditions, and provides master planning. Heritage interpretation is a recommendations to implement over a period major tenant of place-making and place-based of time. It also serves as an instructional tool planning. It fosters community investment, and
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 7 and source of inspiration for interpretive practitioners. More than anything, it presents Heritage is the tangible and the a vision for a comprehensive heritage program intangible, the natural and the that will shape the downtown experience cultural. This collective heritage and celebrate the distinct character of the reveals a deeper understanding community by tying together key natural and of where we have been and cultural resources into a cohesive network. where we are going. Overview
Downtown Missoula is many things to many different people. It is part of the homelands of Missoula is its people. From time immemorial the Salish and upper Kalispel people, who lived this valley has been a central part of the here and continue to live here. It is a haven vast Salish and upper Kalispel territory that for artists and students. It is buildings made spanned the four directions on both sides of of local brick alongside marble and granite the Continental Divide. Other tribal peoples courthouses. It is a story of displacement, traversed the valley, including the Kootenai, growth, and perseverance. At the root of this lower Kalispel, Nez Perce, Spokane, Coeur place is Downtown Missoula’s heritage. d’Alene, and Blackfeet.
We consider “heritage” to be the collective The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed fabric that defines and distinguishes Missoula. through this natural thoroughfare and many It is the spirit of place. It is how Missoula others followed. Transportation developments sounds, looks, smells, and feels. It is what makes led the United States to survey for a railroad Missoula, Missoula. Heritage is the tangible and here and negotiate the Hellgate Treaty with the intangible, the natural and the cultural. It the Salish, upper Kalispel, and Kootenai, who is both the Clark Fork River and the story of agreed to cede portions of their lands, including the people who lived beside it. It is memory the Missoula Valley, while reserving the right to and experience, art and song. This collective continue to hunt, fish, and gather plants there. heritage reveals a deeper understanding of Christopher P. Higgins and Francis Worden where we have been and where we are going. created the commercial foundation of the valley The wilderness surrounds Missoula. Downtown in 1860 when they established a trading post perches on the banks of the river and sits in the at Hell Gate--situated along the newly-built shadow of mountains. The valley walls bear the Mullan Road to serve the business of nearby rippled reminders of cataclysmic glacial floods. Indian agencies. When Higgins and Worden Fire shaped its forests, just as the rivers have moved their operation to the confluence of reshaped the valleys over centuries of geologic Rattlesnake Creek and the Clark Fork River, time. Missoula is the natural landscape. it was Higgins’ upper Kalispel wife, Julia,
8 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates INTRODUCTION
who is often credited with suggesting the new fishing and huckleberry picking in the summer. settlement take an anglicized version of its From the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Salish place-name: Missoula. Church to Har Shalom to the St. Francis-Xavier Catholic Church, from the political activism of Missoula grew into an economic hub of Western Gals Against Smog Pollution (GASP) to anti- Montana while remaining a place of mixed war protests, Missoulians have a way of turning ways of life: the tribal ways that had defined their collective voices and shared experiences the region for millenia, and the nascent market into the foundations of their community. system, further spurred by the gold rushes of the 1860s. The Mullan Road brought people and Downtown is also a haven for the arts. From the commerce into the valley, but it was the steel Wilma to the Missoula Community Theater, spines of the Northern Pacific that ignited an from vaudeville to River City Roots Festival, explosion of industrial activity. A. B. Hammond’s the downtown streets have hosted artists of all lumber empire provided the bones for growth, calibers. The Blackfoot River inspired Norman and the mills at Bonner supplied not only Maclean to write A River Runs Through It, and Missoula, but Butte and other Montana towns. an affinity for the town brought the passage:
Economic expansion benefited some, but “The world is full of bastards, the number increasing pushed tribal people and other racial and ethnic rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.” minorities to the margins. The development of Each year, filmmakers from around the world the Garden City involved extremes of the human arrive for the International Wildlife Film experience and everything in between, all rooted Festival and Big Sky Documentary Film in Downtown Missoula. Festival. Every month, Downtown hosts gallery Today, Downtown Missoula carries on traditions showings and gatherings on First Fridays. both old and new. The entrepreneurial spirit Front Street, once home to a Chinese thrives with Saturday markets and in locally- community and a thriving red-light district, owned businesses of all kinds, including its is now home to boutiques and eateries. The multitude of coffee shops, restaurants, breweries, sawmills have given way to parks and river and boutiques. trails. Missoula’s downtown is the confluence of Missoula has long been a gathering place. The its past and its future. From many perspectives, Salish and upper Kalispel harvested camas and Missoula is a meaningful place. bitterroot in the spring. Presidents have given speeches on its street corners. Music festivals Approach have filled the long summer days. Every autumn, students return to the University of In 2018, the Downtown Missoula Partnership Montana and infuse the town with renewed collaborated with the Missoula Historic intellectual energy. Winter brings skiing Preservation Office and other Downtown enthusiasts and long months to anticipate Missoula stakeholders to form a Downtown
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 9 The popularity of Unseen Missoula led the heritage committee to consider interpretive planning in order to chart a path forward for future downtown interpretation. In support of this effort, the Montana Department of Commerce awarded the Missoula Downtown Foundation (MDF) a tourism grant to begin the interpretive planning process. MDF and Historical Research Associates, Inc., (HRA), a historical consulting firm headquartered in Downtown Missoula since 1974, provided the remaining resources to produce the plan. The City of Missoula Historic Preservation Office provided oversight and served as an active participant throughout this effort.
The interpretive planning process began in January 2019 with the first in a series of planning meetings held with an interpretive planning advisory committee assembled by the MDF (for a list of HRA’s team and advisory committee participants, see Planning Resources). Over the course of the spring and summer of 2019, the advisory committee Interpretive planning open house, April 2019. Credit: convened for planning meetings led by HRA’s Benson Media interpretive planners. As the process evolved, HRA’s team personally contacted dozens Missoula Heritage Committee. The fruit of this effort appeared in the development of a downtown heritage program called Unseen Missoula. The interpretive offering, modeled after a highly successful special event of the same name, consisted of a guided tour through several historic downtown buildings. They soon added a second tour focused on the historic riverfront and the story of Missoula’s redevelopment over time. The initial success of Unseen Missoula was evidenced by a season’s worth of tours selling out in a matter of weeks. Out to Lunch, July 2019. Credit: HRA
10 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates INTRODUCTION
¯ Missoula Redevelopment Agency Area Map For: MissoulaDate: MayDowntown 30, 2018 Heritage Interpretive Plan projectMISSOULA area. DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN AREA - May 2018 0 200 400 600 800 Prepared By: Tod Gass City of Missoula Redevelopment Agency
Feet Note: The information on this map has not been field verified. 140 W. Pine St. Missoula, MT 59802
of community stakeholder organizations, maintained a website and online comment individuals, and potential partners to provide form specifically to obtain feedback on the an overview of the process and plan. It interpretive plan. consulted with representatives from many All of these efforts were intended to include organizations, including tribal consultation with as many voices as possible that have been a the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe’s part of Missoula’s heritage, including many Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee. Moreover, the that have too often been omitted, excluded, interpretive planning committee hosted a public or overlooked. Collectively, the public voice open house in April 2019 to share information informed the planning process and provided on the plan and to solicit public feedback. essential feedback. Altogether, the planning The interpretive planning committee offered committee spoke to more than 1,000 other community engagement opportunities community members. The interpretive plan by hosting information tables at community that follows incorporates many perspectives on events, including Fort Missoula’s annual Fourth Missoula’s heritage to reveal both the diverse of July celebration, Out to Lunch, Downtown experiences and shared heritage of Downtown Tonight, and at the River City Roots Festival. Missoula. The Downtown Missoula Partnership
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 11 This interpretive plan is presented in four the Clark Fork River’s south shore, from the parts. The first part provides the interpretive Old Sawmill District to the mouth of Hellgate foundation, which is intended to guide all Canyon. It also includes the Hip Strip and the subsequent interpretive design and media, Catholic Block, and offers gateway interpretive as well as serve as a resource for anyone opportunities directed towards Greenough developing exhibits, tours, outdoor elements, Park and the North Hills, the University of digital content, and more. The second part Montana, and the Bitterroot Branch. Areas describes Downtown Missoula’s existing excluded from this plan that could be well- conditions relative to heritage interpretation served by interpretation include other Missoula and interpretive facilities under development. neighborhoods, parks, trails, and the University The third part outlines specific short-, mid-, of Montana. This plan recommends that such and long-term interpretive recommendations, based on existing site conditions and current areas receive attention by interpretive planners. plans surrounding the redesign of certain This interpretive plan is purposefully general Downtown Missoula features. The fourth part in its recommendations, presenting concepts provides additional resources for developing and ideas more than specific directives. It aims interpretation and other information about the to identify a thematic framework upon which interpretive planning process. interpretation can be developed and to identify opportunities to shape the visitor experience. Scope and Limitations These recommendations will give future This interpretive plan is limited to Downtown interpretive practitioners the tools they need Missoula and follows the geographic parameters to develop interpretation. It does not include identified in the 2019 Missoula Downtown interpretive text, design elements, or detailed Master Plan. The area includes the Downtown locations directing where all interpretive media core from Interstate 90 to the park lands along should be implemented.
12 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates INTRODUCTION
Missoula public art. Credit: HRA
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 13 “The ‘intangible cultural heritage’ means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills — as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith — that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.”
— United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) PART 1 FOUNDATION
Original stone foundation in the basement of the Hammond Arcade Credit: Athena Photography
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 15 Purpose and Guiding Principles “Recognizing that spirit of place is transmitted essentially by The purpose of the heritage interpretive plan people, and that transmission is: is an important part of its To use heritage interpretation to conservation, we declare communicate the intangible values that it is through interactive associated with Downtown Missoula and communication and the preserve its overall spirit of place. participation of the concerned To help identify ways to communicate communities that the spirit Downtown Missoula’s heritage and guide of place is most efficiently how future heritage programming is safeguarded, used and implemented. enhanced. Communication is the best tool for keeping the spirit To build awareness of the heritage values of place alive.” that exist in Downtown Missoula. To help the public understand why —Quebec Declaration on the Downtown Missoula is important from Preservation of the Spirit of Place. multiple perspectives. To provide a resource for interpretive practitioners, partners, and stakeholders Respect culturally and racially sensitive who might develop Downtown Missoula sites and issues and actively work to interpretation. emphasize traditionally marginalized and excluded perspectives.
The following are guiding principles for the Provide clear direction for interpretive planning process: implementation. Explore all available viewpoints. Support the vision of the Downtown Master Plan and the major tenets of the Tell Downtown Missoula’s stories as City Growth Policy including Livability, accurately and honestly as possible. Safety & Wellness, and Community Base interpretation on solid research and Design. knowledge. Produce a lasting impact. Maintain an open and respectful dialogue. Involve stakeholders and the public-at- large and keep them engaged as the plan is developed and implemented.
16 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
The Missoula Marathon. Credit: Athena Photography
Interpretive Goals groups and children, on the many facets of Downtown Missoula’s heritage. Interpretive goals are the primary things that Give underrepresented communities and Downtown Missoula interpretation should their stories a voice to broaden the overall strive to accomplish. understanding of the many perspectives Interpret Downtown Missoula’s heritage that converge here and the harsh realities to preserve the spirit of place, promote that many faced. community identity, and foster civic pride Use interpretation to foster dialogue among through compelling and meaningful heritage organizations, stakeholders, and stories and engagement. the public-at-large to build a heritage coali- Connect Downtown Missoula visitors to tion and enhance long-term partnerships. the community and heritage of this place. Increase awareness of Missoula’s heritage Themes and its significance in the context of Themes are the heart of this interpretive regional and national stories. plan and they provide the framework for all Create opportunities for all Missoulians aspects of interpretive programming. They to recognize Missoula’s identity and feel are intended to provide an accessible way to a greater personal connection to their link tangible resources to intangible meanings downtown. and to provide a tool to develop central, Create opportunities for visitors to have relevant ideas for the audience. Sub-themes and authentic experiences by promoting interpretive topics are tied to the overall theme Downtown Missoula heritage resources and provide additional detail for developing and the things that make Missoula unique. interpretive opportunities. Collectively, the Provide opportunities to engage and thematic framework presented in this plan educate the public, including school is broad enough to tell an overall story of
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 17 Missoula Farmer’s Market. Credit: Getty Images
Downtown Missoula and can be applied to the to Saturday markets. It is a place where many distinct sites that collectively represent transportation routes converge: foot paths, Missoula’s heritage. railroads, highways, and bike trails. People gathered here to learn, create, and inspire When developing interpretation, interpretive through visual and performing art, poetry, and entities and community partners should literature. They gathered here to worship. They identify the themes that best relate to their gathered here to protest. They gathered here to resources. From there, they can identify sub- express themselves in support and opposition, themes, interpretive topics, and specific stories to find their voice and their audience. People that communicate the thematic values to the gathered here to listen. They gathered here to public. The connectivity of these themes in recreate—in the saloons, on the rivers, on their both programming and design should help bikes, and on their feet. They gathered here for link Downtown Missoula’s scattered heritage community. resources into a cohesive interpretive network. THEME 1: OVERALL THEME: Downtown Missoula Landscape and Homelands is a Gathering Place Missoula is a community shaped by its unique mountain landscape. This theme focuses on People have gathered in Missoula from time Downtown Missoula’s relationship with its immemorial to obtain sustenance from natural setting and speaks to its place within bitterroot and camas and to fish the waters the traditional Salish and upper Kalispel of the Clark Fork River and Rattlesnake territory. Downtown Missoula is defined by Creek. People gathered here for trade, where the Hellgate Canyon and is an entryway to the the Hell Gate Trading Post provided the mountains and the forests. It is the intersection commercial foundation for an urban center of eastern and western prairies, once frozen that became a regional draw for everything beneath sea and ice. It is the site of human from the mercantile and department stores history that spans millenia. It is a hub of river
18 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
valleys, a source of camas and bitterroot, and a both goods and ideas. This theme focuses trout-filled thoroughfare. on Missoula’s commercial foundations, connections to industry, and legacy as a center Topics within this theme include: of creativity. Climate history, ice age floods, Glacial Topics within this theme include: Lake Missoula, wildfire Clark Fork of the Columbia River Making and trading from time immemorial to the present G e o l o g y Creating with local materials Ecology/plants Artisans Fish and wildlife Mills Geography Art Native peoples Literature Traditional use Products Salish leaders and influential community members Trading posts Explorers and fur traders Saturday markets Settlers Department stores Hellgate Treaty Music Agriculture Businesses Water resources Opportunities Flooding I n d u s t r y Exploitation of resources Transportation Isolation Architecture Regional urban center THEME 3: Environmental thought and leadership Community Life Stewardship and conservation Forestry Downtown Missoula is a community with a rich and diverse history. This theme relates THEME 2: to the stories of people who have converged Create and Exchange here, the places and events that have happened here, and ordinary and extraordinary things Downtown Missoula is a place where people that distinguish it. It also connects Missoula come together to create and exchange to larger national and international trends, experiences, and events.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 19 Missoula sunset. Credit: Getty Images
Topics within this theme include: THEME 4: Memory and Experience Indigenous lifeways Village life Throughout its history, people have had many Neighborhoods different experiences in Downtown Missoula. Family/home/traditions This theme acknowledges that Missoula is a place experienced and perceived differently by The ordinary and the exceptional different people. Religious congregations Taverns Topics within this theme include: Businesses A past viewed though different lenses Schools and education A place of many perspectives Theaters/venues For many it is welcoming, for others not Clubs Nostalgia for some, painful for others Organizations Familiar to some, unfamiliar to others Events Recognition of displacement, exclusion, Immigrants and racism Ethnic groups Memory and experience through literature/art/music Music scene Personal stories Arts community Recognition of differences Poets Celebration of diversity Recreation/Athletics Connection through shared experiences Fraternal organizations Protests Celebrations
20 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
Interpretive Theme Matrices
The Interpretive Theme Matrices provide a guide for tying together the site’s interpretive themes to concepts and ideas, as well as topics and stories.
THEME 1: Landscape and Homelands
THEME CONCEPTS + IDEAS TOPICS + STORIES
Missoula is a community Investigate the geologic events that shaped Climate history, ice age floods, shaped by its unique the Missoula landscape glacial lake, fire mountain landscape. Tell stories of Glacial Lake Missoula that once Clark Fork/Columbia River This theme focuses on covered the entire Missoula Valley and left Downtown Missoula’s Geology evidence of its presence imprinted on the relationship with its landscape Ecology/plants natural setting and speaks to its place Tell how eastern and western prairies Fish and wildlife within traditional Salish converge, creating unique grasslands and upper Kalispel Geography Show how the mountains formed a natural territory. Downtown thoroughfare where people passed through Native peoples Missoula is defined by over many eras the Hellgate Canyon Traditional use and is an entryway Investigate how the Missoula Valley provided Salish leaders and influential to the mountains and for the Salish and upper Kalispel, including community members the forests. It is the bitterroot and camas grounds and fishing intersection of eastern locations Explorers and fur traders and western prairies, Address human interactions with a changing Hellgate Treaty once frozen beneath climate from the ice age to global warming sea and ice. It is the site Settlers of human history that Describe the prominent role of the Clark Agriculture spans millenia. It is a Fork River in community life hub of river valleys, a Water resources source of camas and Identify the influential scholars and activists, bitterroot, and a trout- including tribal elders and leaders, who Flooding made this place home filled thoroughfare. Exploitation of resources Share the story of the origin of the name Isolation of Missoula being attributed to Julia Grant Higgins Regional urban center
Discuss natural disasters and how they Environmental thought/ impacted the community leadership
Demonstrate how conservation efforts and Stewardship/conservation urban restoration projects have impacted Downtown Missoula Forestry
Describe Missoula’s geographic isolation and how it influenced community interactions
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 21 THEME 2: Create and Exchange
THEME CONCEPTS + IDEAS TOPICS + STORIES
Downtown Missoula is Identify opportunities to interpret trading Making and trading from time a place where people and cultural exchange among Indigenous immemorial to the present come together to peoples Creating with local materials create and exchange Discuss fur trade activities that took place both goods and Artisans near Missoula ideas. This theme Mills focuses on Missoula’s Tell about the establishment of Missoula Mills commercial foundations, and the polyethnic community that took Art connections to industry, shape at that time and legacy as a center of Literature Discuss the importance of the Missoula creativity. Products Mercantile and its role as the commercial heart of the city for more than a century Trading posts
Share the stories behind individual legacy Department stores businesses Saturday markets Hold special events celebrating Missoula’s music history Music
Describe Missoula connections to the timber Businesses
industry and the history of its sawmills Opportunities
Discuss the influence of Milltown Dam on Industry powering Downtown Missoula Transportation Promote interpretive opportunities centered on Missoula’s writers and literary tradition Architecture
Explore Missoula’s historic architecture and share the stories of prominent local architects
Interpret Missoula’s ceramics tradition
Support new and existing Native American cultural heritage events, such as the Missoula Indigenous Market and the Indigenous Celebration hosted by the Missoula PaddleHeads.
Expand and utilize the Legacy Business Recognition Program to include tours, maps, tax incentives and more
Discuss how transportation development, such as the Mullan Road, railroads, bridges, trolleys, and cars influenced community life
22 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
THEME 3: Community Life
THEME CONCEPTS + IDEAS TOPICS + STORIES
Downtown Missoula is a Provide opportunities for the Séliš-Qlispé Indigenous lifeways community with a rich to develop interpretive Culture Committee Village life and diverse history. This signs and place name markers theme relates to the Neighborhoods Integrated public art focusing on Salish and stories of people who upper Kalispel life in the Missoula Valley and Family/home/traditions have converged here, produced by Salish and upper Kalispel artists the places and events The ordinary and the that have happened Explore the connections between the exceptional here, and ordinary and University of Montana and Downtown Religious congregations extraordinary things Missoula that distinguish it. It Taverns also connects Missoula Hold commemorative events, such as living to larger national and history exhibitions Businesses international trends, Describe the work of the Sisters of Schools and education experiences, and events. Providence and their contributions to the community Theaters/venues/clubs
Explore the everyday lives of citizens who Organizations represent distinct aspects of the Missoula Events experience Transportation Tell stories about Missoula during Prohibition, such as the Front Street Immigrants speakeasys Ethnic groups Interpret Downtown Missoula military Music scene history, including the 25th Infantry, the Spanish American War send-off, and Arts community Vietnam protests Poets Present special events commemorating Recreation/Athletics music from jazz clubs to house bands to notable performances Fraternal Organizations
Identify opportunities to use public art to Protests highlight recreational heritage, from athletic Celebrations events to fly fishing to marathon running
Identify opportunities to embed Missoula poetry into landscape architecture
Describe the importance of Missoula as bitterroot digging grounds, with encampments there into the 1960s when development forced tribal people elsewhere
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 23 THEME 4: Memory and Experience
THEME CONCEPTS + IDEAS TOPICS + STORIES
Throughout its history, Acknowledge and recognize Salish A past viewed though different people have had many displacement including the Hellgate Treaty lenses different experiences in and Chief Charlo’s removal from the A place of many perspectives Downtown Missoula. This Bitterroot Valley theme acknowledges For many it is welcoming, for Host Missoula heritage story-telling events at that Missoula is a others not churches, taverns, and other gathering places place experienced and Nostalgia for some, painful for perceived differently by Work with community members to establish others different people. oral history programs; encourage youth to record memories of elders/senior citizens Familiar to some, unfamiliar to at downtown venues, including the Missoula others Senior Center Recognition of displacement, Explore the experience of the 25th Infantry exclusion, and racism (bicycle corps) stationed at Fort Missoula and the individuals who served and their Memory and experience relationship with Downtown and the Missoula through literature/art/music community Personal stories
Describe the St. Paul AME Church and the Recognition of differences history of Missoula’s African American community Celebration of diversity
Identify opportunities to tell about the Connection through shared experience of Missoula’s early Chinese experiences community
Acknowledge the exclusionary practices and racism that has occurred throughout Missoula’s history, as well as efforts to combat those forces
Identify opportunities to interpret the history and Missoula experience of various immigrant communities over time
Describe the experience of Hmong refugees and their connection to local agriculture and the farmers’ markets
Collaborate with organizations such as EmpowerMT, Missoula IDEA for Racial Justice, and Together Missoula to identify opportunities to celebrate the heritage of underrepresented populations in Missoula
Explore the representation of Missoula memories through art and literature
24 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
International Choral Festival. Credit: Benson Media
Setting and Audiences in Downtown Missoula can be categorized in many ways; the following are just some of the The Physical Setting many groups that form heritage interpretation audiences: Downtown Missoula is an urban center within Missoula area residents a relatively concise geography covered by a grid of city streets. The Clark Fork River’s position Families along the southern boundary of the downtown Senior citizens core means that motor vehicle traffic from School groups, including elementary, high the south enters downtown on one of three school students, and college students bridges. Two exits off of Interstate 90 provide downtown entry points. Broadway Avenue is Visitors the primary east–west corridor leading through Intended Audiences downtown. The public also enters downtown by foot, bicycle, and bus, with downtown serving Downtown interpretation should continue as the city’s central transit hub. to serve current audiences, but efforts should be made to connect heritage elements to the Audiences distinct leisure interests that already attract the public to downtown. A special effort should also To design the most impactful interpretive be made through outreach to increase program programming and employ the most effective offerings related to these audiences: interpretive techniques, it is necessary to identify both existing audiences who actively Visitors coming for special events, such use site interpretive programs and intended as concerts, film and art festivals, and audiences who might be encouraged to visit sporting events through well-planned interpretation. Current and former Missoula community The audiences for interpretive programming members interested in aspects of Missoula
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 25 heritage they personally experienced Cognitive School groups, including college classes Know that Indigenous people traveled Researchers, scholars, and artists along this river, fished its shores, made it home, and still make it home. Global and national visitation, through websites, digital content, and digital Learn about contemporary Native research tools American cultures and communities Understand the U.S. government’s Desired Audience removal of the Bitterroot Salish from their Experiences homelands
While themes explain what audiences will learn, Understand the hardship and isolation experiences describe what audiences will do. many community members felt, especially the oppressed Experiential Learn about national and global history Find Missoula heritage interpretation through a local lens integrated into the downtown landscape Understand that environmental Encounter interpretation that is both degradation occurred in Missoula and welcoming and accessible to audiences of recognize the work associated with diverse backgrounds and abilities restoration efforts Easily become aware of interpretive Know that Missoula once existed program offerings and resources underneath a glacial lake Follow a heritage trail that is easily Understand how transportation has identifiable and appealing to a variety of changed over time demographics Recognize how Missoula has influenced Attend an informative and entertaining creativity and individuality Unseen Missoula tour Learn about the lives of individual Participate in a Pop-up Museum Missoulians and how they are a reflection exhibition of the community-at-large Visit a museum or other interpretive Learn about the history and architecture facility of Downtown Missoula’s historic buildings Participate in heritage events that are Reflective engaging and entertaining Reflect and contemplate about the Envision what Missoula would have looked changing landscape, the people who lived like at various points in history here, and how this place influences people on a personal level
26 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 1: FOUNDATION
Understand and respect the legacy of program for Downtown Missoula. Each of Indigenous people, settlers, and everyday these entities operate with a small staff and people heritage interpretation is just one of their many Make connections between Missoula and functions. Expectations and planning for future other regional locations and landscapes heritage interpretation must acknowledge the constraints of the staff, including funding and Make personal connections to Missoula time limitations, which are not likely to increase and consider your downtown memories in the foreseeable future. Recognize the value of historic preservation Heritage and Visibility Issues and Influences Downtown Missoula is in a central geographic location. It is a regional hub for business, Affecting Interpretation city and county government, and certain The following are internal and external issues federal functions, such as U.S. District Court. and influences that may affect interpretation. Most people who experience Downtown By identifying these, strategies can be Missoula only interact with the city’s heritage developed to overcome them. incidentally. Heritage interpretation needs to be integrated into the downtown experience to Changing Urban Landscape appeal to a larger segment of the Downtown Missoula population. Missoula’s urban landscape is constantly This plan also recommends celebrating and changing. Downtown is in the midst of interpreting our communal spaces that are part rapid redevelopment, and historic structures of everyday landscapes. This includes industrial are being demolished and replaced. ruins and hole-in-the-walls -- the places that are Interpretive practitioners must identify so familiar to our community that they can be ways to place remaining historic structures easily overlooked. and new development in context to provide interpretation in absence of certain structures, A Living Downtown and to identify and celebrate aspects of Missoula’s intangible heritage not represented Downtown Missoula is a thriving municipality. in the built environment. At any point, people occupy its streets and other public spaces for many different Staff Capacity reasons. This presents both opportunity and challenge for interpretation. As a result, there The Downtown Missoula Partnership (DMP) are distractions such as traffic, congestion, and the City of Missoula Historic Preservation construction, and urban noise. Office (HPO) are the primary entities promoting a comprehensive heritage interpretation
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 27 PART 2 EXISTING CONDITIONS
Missoula Art Museum, located in Missoula’s historic Carnegie library, provides an important anchor for Downtown interpretation. Credit: HRA
28 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates We consider “heritage” to be the collective fabric that defines and distinguishes Missoula. It is the spirit of place. It is how Missoula sounds, looks, smells, and feels. It is what makes Missoula, Missoula.
Interpretation in Recreation Department each assume Downtown Missoula responsibility for Downtown Missoula heritage interpretation, as does the Downtown Missoula The people of Missoula have celebrated Partnership, Destination Missoula , and many their downtown’s heritage through public non-profit cultural organizations. However, interpretation for more than a century. there is no central city department or staff Monuments, plaques, and memorials scattered person responsible for overseeing a municipal throughout the downtown landscape identify heritage program. historic buildings and tell stories of the Lewis Various institutions in Downtown Missoula and Clark Expedition or Captain John Mullan offer exhibitions, interpretive programming, and his Military Wagon Road. While much and heritage events. Downtown museums of this existing interpretation provides a base and cultural entities include the Missoula Art from which to build a comprehensive heritage Museum, Zootown Arts Community Center interpretation network, there is a lack of (ZACC), Missoula Community Theater, interpretive elements that present the voices of spectrUM, Families First Learning Lab, Boone Indigenous people and other people of color. and Crockett Club, and the Montana Museum Moreover, some locations could be better of Natural History. served with updated signs and public art that are tied into the larger interpretive themes and Some businesses exemplify historic preservation are more inclusive in scope. and adaptive reuse, while others feature historic artifacts, collections, and interpretive Downtown Missoula heritage interpretation exhibitions. The Florence Building, The is supported by a variety of organizations and Wilma, Top Hat, Charlie B’s, The Oxford, municipal entities. The City of Missoula’s and the Missoula Club are a few of the many HPO, Historic Preservation Commission, downtown locations that contribute to the Public Art Committee, and Parks and Downtown Missoula cultural landscape. Others
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 29 are legacy businesses, which evoke personal memories and speak to the shared experience of generations of Missoulians. Information and Orientation
Wayfinding Plan and Wayfinding System
In 2013, Missoula produced a “community Missoula historic property inventory map visioning plan” for a city-wide wayfinding system. Phase I of the Missoula wayfinding plan was completed in 2016, with the installation Digital Media of thirty-six pedestrian wayfinding signs and two interpretive panels. It recommended the Websites production of nine additional double-sided Downtown Missoula Partnership (DMP) has a kiosks that remain in the planning stages. website, http://www.missouladowntown.com. Phase II of the plan called for city-wide vehicle It includes event listings, a shopping and dining wayfinding signs, parking signage, “district” guide, information on experiencing Downtown identification signage, and “Welcome to Missoula, and other resources. The DMP Missoula” gateway monuments. website also features self-guided downtown historic and public art walking tours and information on the Unseen Missoula program.
The City of Missoula HPO’s website, https:// www.ci.missoula.mt.us/1657/Historic- Preservation, includes information about the city’s historic districts and individual buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It includes an interactive map of National Register properties, which became active in June 2019.
E-Newsletter
In August 2019, Unseen Missoula produced its first e-newsletter. It contained information Downtown Missoula wayfinding,Credit: HRA
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from the City of Missoula HPO and details on that correspond with interpretive text. The Unseen Missoula tours and special events, and information provides an overview of architecture provides links to purchase tickets. and history. It includes narratives describing fifteen historic buildings and one historic site Social Media and lists another twenty-one buildings. It also includes a brief description of four historic DMP operates a Facebook account and an districts and lists five others. Instagram account, @missouladowntown. The City of Missoula HPO operates a News Media Facebook account and an Instagram account, @historicmissoula. Other partner entities The Missoulian publishes original feature stories also operate accounts on popular social media based on Missoula’s heritage. These stories platforms. provide one of the most accessible ways to communicate Missoula’s heritage. In addition, Mobile Apps the Missoula Current online newspaper includes a regular column focused on local history. Local HRA produced several downtown digital television media also features occasional reports walking tours using the Next Exit History covering aspects of Downtown Missoula mobile app platform. Comprising around heritage. thirty sites, the tours are each branded as “Unseen Missoula” and feature images, original interpretive text, and audio narration. The Audience Experience tours cover Downtown Missoula as a whole, the Basements and Back Alleys tour, the Hip Interpretive Media Strip tour, the River Walk tour, and a Missoula Marathon course tour that ends downtown. Interpretive Signs in Parks Print Publications Interpretive signs and plaques are scattered throughout Downtown Missoula parks and Brochures greenspace. The signs cover an assortment of natural history and cultural heritage DMP, in cooperation with the City of Missoula topics. Some provide effective interpretive HPO, publishes a Downtown Historic Walking opportunities and remain in excellent Tour map and a Downtown Public Art Tour condition. Other signs are weathered and dated map. The tours were originally produced in 2001 or are located in obscure places where they and have been updated annually. The tours are receive little attention. The signs appear to published each year in the Guide to Downtown have been sporadically produced over the past Missoula. The walking tours consist of a map half-century, and there is little connectively with color-coded overlay lines for history and between the topics they address and messages art. Numbers on the map represent stops they deliver.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 31 the downtown public art. Downtown Missoula also contains scattered historical artifacts, some of which have been the subject of interpretive media. This includes features such as ghost writing, sidewalk bricks, the Missoula Mills stone in Caras Park, and the steam locomotive at Circle Square.
Exhibitions
The Unseen Missoula Pop-up Museum filled a void for downtown exhibition space by hosting temporary exhibitions.
The Missoula Art Museum hosts many temporary exhibitions centered on city heritage. Interpretive plaque on the Orange Street Bridge. Credit: HRA This includes exhibitions featuring local artists, as well as shows presented in coordination with Interpretive Signs local communities and organizations, such along City Streets as the Hmong community and the Missoula Interpretive plaques on historic structures Urban Indian Health Center. The Zootown constitute the majority of the textual Arts Community Center (ZACC) also hosts interpretive media along downtown streets. heritage exhibitions, including a collaborative The signs are varied in appearance and cover an exhibition on Missoula’s Music history with the assortment of heritage topics. Many of the signs Lost Sounds Project. are cast-metal, such as the signs along Orange Other entities have hosted temporary Street Bridge. Other signs appear to have exhibitions, including St. Francis-Xavier, been produced to standards of the Montana which produced a series of interpretive panels Historical Society in framed, laser-printed about the history of the Catholic Block, and metal plaques. Notable examples include Free members of the Har Shalom community, who Speech Corner and residences in the East Pine prepared a temporary exhibition on the history Historic District. of Missoula’s Jewish community. Downtown Downtown Public Art Missoula heritage is sometimes interpreted during First Friday art exhibitions at local and Artifacts businesses and at events hosted in Caras Park. Missoula has a wealth of public art and several Publications heritage-related public art installations were recently completed. The City of Missoula’s Downtown Missoula heritage topics are widely Public Art Committee commissioned much of covered in publications, with many listed in the
32 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 2: EXISTING CONDITIONS
Selected Topical Resources (Part 4: Planning Unseen Missoula Tours Resources). These resources are available at Unseen Missoula has offered three separate the Missoula Public Library and downtown programs since its debut in 2018. The most bookstores and focus on such topics as local successful of these offerings involve guided history, natural history, and architecture. tours through historic buildings. Tour guides Archives and Collections include graduate students, historians, teachers, and even comedians. The Unseen Missoula Heritage research resources are available at the program offers interpretive training to the Missoula Public Library. This new library facility guides, who generally follow a scripted program opens in 2020 with an expanded Montana while leading groups of up to twelve individuals. Room containing local history collections. The University of Montana Archives and Special Potential Partners Collections maintains local and regional history collections, including collections related to many Partnerships and collaboration are themselves a of the city’s prominent residents. The Historical part of Missoula’s heritage. Schools, businesses, Museum at Fort Missoula contains an extensive non-profits, clubs, fraternal organizations, collection of Downtown Missoula artifacts, as and municipal entities have worked together well as archival collections. A recent addition for decades to develop heritage events and to Missoula research resources is The Missoulian programming. online collections, available through newspapers. For the purposes of this plan, partners are com, which includes fully-searchable daily defined as entities that offer interpretation or newspapers dating back more than a century. are involved in heritage events or programming and, therefore, have a distinct interest in the Programming interpretive plan. Ultimately it will be the Individuals and organizations provide guided partners who implement the plan. heritage interpretation programs in Downtown Below is a partial list of potential partners Missoula. Some have operated commercially, involved in Downtown Missoula heritage while others have been conducted as special interpretation: events for the public at large. Businesses also offer heritage programming, such as Big Sky Arts Missoula Breakout, which features historically-themed escape room activities and a downtown Arts Missoula is a community resource for the scavenger hunt. With the recent addition of the coordination, development, and support of Unseen Missoula program, heritage tours are a arts and culture for the benefit of the Missoula regular downtown activity. community. It oversees a variety of heritage- related events, including Germanfest and First Night.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 33 Boone and Crockett Club which is a citizen board assembled to oversee historic preservation in the city. The HPC Housed in the Historic Milwaukee Depot recognizes heritage businesses and hosts other building, the Boone and Crockett Club’s national preservation-related special events. headquarters promotes conservation, wildlife habitat preservation, and wildlife management. City of Missoula Parks Its gallery includes taxidermy specimens and and Recreation exhibitions related to club history. Missoula Parks and Recreation is responsible for A Carousel for Missoula the management of all city parks, green spaces, and conservation lands. It oversees the urban A Carousel for Missoula is one of the city’s forestry program and also operates educational premier cultural attractions. Located adjacent programs, including after-school activities to Caras Park and originally developed by a and summer camps. Missoula parks contain collection of dedicated volunteers, the hand- extensive heritage interpretation features, carved carousel features individual ponies including signage, public art, and artifacts. The that are each a unique reflection of Missoula’s parks themselves are community heritage assets, heritage. Besides the intricately carved carousel, with many established shortly after the city’s the facility houses exhibits on the its history founding. and is home to the Dragon Hollow playground. Destination Missoula City of Missoula Historic Preservation Office An organization dedicated to promoting local tourism, Destination Missoula operates an The City of Missoula HPO maintains a range interactive website and produces city travel of heritage resources on its website, including guides that feature extensive information about an interactive historic properties map, historic Missoula’s heritage resources. It also operates preservation toolkit, and information and the MSO Hub visitor information center. resources on historic preservation. The office’s mission extends beyond compliance Downtown Missoula and administration. Its work with heritage Partnership interpretation includes May Preservation Month activities, collaboration with the Unseen The Downtown Missoula Partnership Missoula program, exhibitions at the Pop-up (DMP) is the collaboration of three distinct Museum, local and national register historic organizations, the Missoula Downtown properties, the Legacy Business Recognition Association (MDA), the Downtown Business Program, and an assortment of other programs Improvement District, and the Missoula and events. The office is also staff to the Downtown Foundation (MDF). As a collective Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), administrative entity, the DMP promotes
34 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates Caras Park serves as Missoula’s town square and offers the ideal jumping off point to experience Downtown Missoula heritage. Credit: Athena Photography economic development and an assortment of Families First Learning Lab community initiatives in Downtown Missoula. A longtime operator of a children’s museum It publishes a historic walking tour, public in Downtown Missoula, Families First is now art tour, and operates the Unseen Missoula housed in the Missoula Public Library and program. It also staffs a team of Downtown operates as the Families First Learning Lab. Ambassadors who provide information and The organization offers family education and orientation, operates Caras Park, offers weekly learning through play educational activities. Out-to-Lunch and Downtown ToNight events and seasonal and special events, among other Historical Museum things. at Fort Missoula EmpowerMT The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula EmpowerMT is a nonprofit organization seeks “to inspire a sense of place and history dedicated to creating a more just and inclusive for Missoula County by collecting, studying, society and, as such, offers workshops, interpreting, and preserving the region’s natural programming, and training for schools, and cultural heritage.” The organization serves businesses, and the community-at-large. It also as Missoula’s historical society, and houses organizes two signature heritage events, Martin extensive collections related to Downtown Luther King, Jr. Day and Diversity Day, that Missoula heritage. Among its various programs, examine civil rights issues both locally and it administers an annual Preserving Missoula nationally. It also serves as parent organization County History Grant Program, which is to Missoula’s IDEA for Racial Justice. available to all Missoula County non-profit organizations involved in historic preservation and interpretation.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 35 Jeannette Rankin approximately twenty to twenty-five exhibitions Peace Center through six galleries, with many shows celebrating Missoula’s heritage and arts tradition. The Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, in the It also hosts an assortment of interpretive tradition of its namesake, is dedicated to programs for school groups and the public-at- connecting and empowering people to “build large. a socially just, non-violent and sustainable community and world.” As such, it maintains Missoula County a lending library and offers a variety of Missoula County government administers community events and programming. heritage assets throughout the county, including MCAT Downtown Missoula heritage assets on the Missoula County Courthouse property. The Started as Missoula Community Access historic county courthouse houses a collection Television, MCAT is Missoula’s community of Edgar Paxson murals, the Missoula World media resource which promotes the spread War I Doughboy statue, and interpretation of information and exchange of views, ideas, installed in the Sophie Moise Room. Missoula and opinions. It provides opportunities for County also facilitates the Missoula County community use of media equipment, air time Heritage Roundtable where it brings together to reach television audiences, and coverage of representatives from various heritage municipal events and meetings. It houses an organizations to encourage dialogue and extensive archive of media footage ranging collaboration. from city council meetings to concerts at long shuttered music venues. It also operates youth Missoula Public Library summer camps. Opening in 2020, the new Missoula Public MCT, Inc. Library is dedicated to serving as a “life-long learning hub” for Missoula County. The MCT, Inc., is Missoula Children’s Theatre and facility will house several heritage partner Missoula Community Theatre. MCT Center organizations and will continue to provide for the Performing Arts presents theater learning tools and resources. The library also productions, hosts community events, and offers regular heritage programming and has offers a variety of after-school programs and space to host special events. summer camps. Missoula Senior Center Missoula Art Museum The Missoula Senior Center, located on the Hip Located in Missoula’s historic Carnegie Library Strip, offers programs and services that support building, the Missoula Art Museum rotates the health and well-being of Missoula’s 55 and
36 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 2: EXISTING CONDITIONS
older population. The Center has the capacity Montana Natural to collaborate with many community partners History Center in support of Downtown Missoula heritage programs, such as storytelling and interpretive Located along the Milwaukee Trail on Hickory displays Street, the Montana Natural History Center (MNHC) hosts exhibitions relating to local Missoula Urban Indian natural history and cultural heritage. It also Health Center offers programming and events, such as Nature Adventure Kids Day Camps, RiverFest, The Missoula Urban Indian Health Center teacher workshops/resources, field trips, nature (MUIHC) is involved with a variety of heritage programs, exhibitions, and self-guided nature initiatives with past collaborations including trails. exhibitions at the Missoula Art Museum and community events at Caras Park. In National Museum of recent years, the MUIHC has sponsored and Forest Service History organized the Indigenous Film Festival, which not only draws visitors downtown, but also The National Museum of Forest Service provides a forum for lectures and other public History (NMFSH), located near Missoula programming. Other MUIHC downtown International Airport, houses extensive events include Indigenous heritage events in collections related to national forests. partnership with the Missoula PaddleHeads Downtown Missoula served as the regional (Osprey) baseball team and an Indigenous Art headquarters for the U.S. Forest Service in Market. the Northern Rockies. The NMFSH offers education outreach opportunities and curates Montana Museum of temporary exhibitions. Arts and Culture National Park Service The Montana Museum of Arts and Culture The National Park Service (NPS) administers (MMAC), part of the University of Montana, two national trails that include Downtown holds a significant fine art collection. Plans Missoula: the Ice Age Floods National are currently underway to build the Montana Geologic Trail and the Lewis and Clark Heritage Pavilion on the University of Montana National Historical Trail. The NPS offers campus to serve as the MMAC’s permanent interpretive resources and occasional grant home. The new museum presents opportunity funding opportunities connected with such for collaboration and partnership on Downtown things as small-scale education projects and Missoula heritage programming. National History Day awards.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 37 A Carousel for Missoula. Credit: HRA
38 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 2: EXISTING CONDITIONS
Public Art Committee The Roxy Theater
The Public Art Committee is a municipal The Roxy Theater, built in 1937 and featuring committee whose members appointed by the a recently restored façade, promotes both mayor or city council. It is responsible for cinematic and cultural programming and serves overseeing the city’s public art program. Among as a hub for arts and culture. The International its many initiates is the “Art Revolution” City of Wildlife Film Festival, which owns the Roxy Missoula public art guide, which it publishes in Theater, is the most notable of several festivals collaboration with the Missoulian. hosted there each year. Preserve Historic Missoula Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee Preserve Historic Missoula advocates for historic preservation in the city, while also Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe’s striving to teach the residents of Missoula Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee organizes and Western Montana to appreciate the built traditional tribal cultural events and activities, environment and cultural resources. The works to preserve and revitalize the Salish organization’s interpretive programs during language, maintains the tribe’s History & Preservation Month include historic pub crawls Culture Archives, Photographic Archives, and administering Missoula’s Most Endangered and Historical Collections, and oversees Places List. Tribal History and Ethnogeography Projects. It also offer public educational outreach and Rocky Mountain Museum presentations and has produced a variety of of Military History interpretive signs and documentary videos. The Rocky Mountain Museum of Military Zootown Arts History’s mission extends well outside of Community Center Missoula, but it also serves as an important resource for military and veterans’ history Housed in the historic Studebaker Building, related to Downtown Missoula and the city’s the Zootown Arts Community Center connection to international events. (ZACC) works to bridge community and art in Missoula. The ZACC offers an assortment of community programming, including the “Tell Us Something” youth storytelling series and children’s rock camps.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 39 “Successful interpreters use accurate and comprehensive information but convey more than facts. If information and learning were the primary goal of most visitors, they would never need to visit. Audiences want something more. They seek meaningful experiences.”
— David L. Larsen, Meaningful Interpretation PART 3 RECOMMENDATIONS
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 41 Introduction Actions Related to
The recommendations describe potential the Connectivity actions for partners and interpretive of Downtown practitioners to undertake to strengthen Interpretation heritage interpretation in Downtown Missoula. While some of the recommendations pertain to Fundamental to the improvement of the specific entities, such as the City of Missoula’s audience experience in Downtown Missoula HPO, Missoula Parks and Recreation, is to consider the connectivity of its heritage or the Unseen Missoula program, other interpretation. Interpretive media should recommendations provide useful direction communicates messages that are part of a for other partners, which include municipal thematically linked information network and and county entities, private businesses, and such communication should direct audiences to non-profit organizations. The recommended related messages—or, more specifically, related actions are organized into several different interpretive media. The actions that follow categories beginning with the connectivity are designed to support the connectivity of of Downtown Missoula interpretation and interpretive sites. continuing with actions related to special events, the Missoula Downtown Master Plan, Heritage Interpretation pre-visit/distance interpretation, audience Anchors experience, interpreting many perspectives Successful heritage interpretation is dependent and underrepresented heritage, program on taking a holistic view of the audience administration, scholarship, additional experience. Audiences need visitor services interpretive elements, and collaboration. such as basic information, clear orientation, and Each recommended action is included in an restrooms. With Missoula’s occasionally harsh implementation plan, which provides a road climate, audiences also need accessible indoor map for the next ten years. There is also a spaces. Although Downtown Missoula lacks an section recommending the entity, or entities, established visitor center or a history museum, responsible for leading major initiatives. it has a number of community resources that This part of the interpretive plan should be are ideally positioned to anchor downtown revisited regularly by partners and interpretive heritage interpretation. They each occupy practitioners as conditions change. Staff should a distinct section of Downtown Missoula, adjust the implementation plan by removing making them logical places from which to accomplished tasks and adding new actions initiate interpretive experiences. These heritage when necessary. interpretation anchors should be identified in the city’s wayfinding system and in supporting interpretive media.
42 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
Caras Park is home to heritage attractions, extensive local history collection. The including Carousel for Missoula, library is also home to the Families countless special events, and is adjacent First Learning Lab, SpectrUM, and to the Wilma Theater, the Unseen MCAT. Once the library redevelopment Missoula Pop-up Museum, and the Ron is completed, these institutions will MacDonald Riverfront Trail System. share exhibit space offering heritage Walking paths and bike trails begin interpretation. The library already there that pass by public art, interpretive features a variety of heritage-related signs, and memorials. The area is an ideal programming, including the “Know jumping-off point for a variety of heritage Montana” history lectures. experiences. Heritage Interpretation Zootown Arts Community Center Gateways (ZACC), located in the historic Studebaker Building, includes creative Like heritage interpretation anchors, spaces featuring exhibitions, classrooms, interpretation gateways present opportunity to and an auditorium for special events. initiate interpretation in Downtown Missoula Besides the ZACC, the Big Sky by providing an entry point for audiences to Documentary Film Institute is managed experience downtown heritage interpretation. from the space. Part of the Gasoline At the same time, they also should interpret Alley historic block, redevelopment the heritage resources existing beyond the city there presents extensive opportunity center in an effort to link them to Downtown to interpret the changing Missoula Missoula. Each gateway should be equipped landscape, arts heritage, and historic with interpretive kiosks welcoming audiences architecture. downtown, while leading audiences to heritage Located in Missoula’s original Carnegie resources beyond. Library, Missoula Art Museum features Greenough Park and Waterworks Hill regular exhibitions celebrating many Trailhead, situated in the mouth of the facets of Missoula heritage and its arts Rattlesnake Valley, present interpretive tradition. The building is adjacent to the opportunities to draw connections Missoula Art Park, across the street from between Downtown Missoula and the Adventure Cycling and the Missoula Missoula heritage beyond downtown. Federal Building, and near the East Pine A new Waterworks Hill Trailhead will Street Historic District. provide views of Downtown Missoula, The Missoula Public Library provides as well as interpretive opportunities. numerous resources to educate the Pedestrians and cyclists enter Downtown public on Missoula heritage, including Missoula from this location. the Montana Room, which houses an
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 43 Wayfinding, interpretive kiosks, and public art along the Cincinnati Brewing Heritage Trail.Credit: Cincinnati Heritage Brewing Trail. The Freedom Trail street medallion. Credit: The Freedom Trail
University of Montana/Riverbowl/Kim the establishment of a Downtown Heritage Trail. Williams Trail is a gateway to both the An ambitious public history project in itself, Hellgate Canyon and the University of Missoula should consider following the lead of Montana. The footpaths converging along downtowns elsewhere in the United States that the north side of campus provide a main have successfully established heritage trails and access point to Downtown Missoula. A have found that they provide clear direction for wide range of interpretive opportunities audiences to immerse themselves in heritage exist there, but special attention should experiences. Notable examples include the Boston be paid the role of the University and its Freedom Trail, Rochester (NY) Heritage Trail, connection to the Missoula community. and Cincinnati Brewing Heritage Trail. Heritage The hub of the Bitterroot Branch and trails differ from published walking tours alone in Milwaukee Trails is an ideal gateway that they lead audiences with physical guidance for audiences entering Missoula from such as sidewalk lines, medallions/markers, or locations west and south of downtown. both. In Downtown Missoula, a collection of such Its location near the Old Sawmill features should be developed and integrated into District, Montana Museum of Natural the landscape to blaze the trail. The development History, McCormick Park, and Ogren of a Heritage Trail also aligns with the directives Park also present opportunities to link of the Downtown Master Plan, which presents interpretation among these southside the concept of “Downtown Trails,” citing the assets. Interpretation leading outward benefits they bring for economic development. can include the connections to southside Identify a series of key heritage resources neighborhoods, Fort Missoula, and the that can be linked together along a Bitterroot Valley beyond. heritage trail. Downtown Missoula Update the downtown wayfinding plan Heritage Trail to provide for clear implementation and design of the Downtown Missoula A primary connectivity recommendation for Heritage Trail. interpreting Downtown Missoula’s heritage is
44 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
Wayfinding showing the heritage trail Actions Related to should be added to existing wayfinding Special Events signs. Wayfinding kiosks identified in the Way- Downtown Missoula hosts special events finding Plan should be developed as stops throughout the year. They include concerts, along the trail, specifically at heritage brew fests, farmers markets, parades, and interpretation gateways. The sign design so much more. The events also present should be modified to include a map of the opportunities for heritage interpretation. heritage trail. An interactive digital kiosk Downtown Missoula heritage partners should should be considered along the trail. identify opportunities to integrate heritage The heritage sites along the trail should be interpretation into existing special events and marked with a custom cast metal medallion consider opportunities to host others. or other marker featuring a heritage trail Develop subject-related pop-up exhibitions, logo designed by a local artist. such as an exhibit telling the story of the Street medallions/markers and lamp post Missoula farmers markets or an exhibit for a markers will guide trail users to specific brewfest chronicling the history of brewing locations. in Missoula. Guiding bricks showing the trail can also Encourage the production of Missoula be added as streets and sidewalks are heritage-related documentaries for local film redeveloped. festivals. Each of the Heritage Interpretation An- Partner with businesses located in historic chors (identified above) should be included buildings and create a history walk associated in the trail and offer a point of orientation with special events, such as First Friday or and entry. Ladies Night, with each business displaying Printed Downtown Missoula Heritage historic photographs of what the buildings Trail brochures should be produced and be looked like at various points in time. made readily available to provide interpre- tation on sites without interpretive signs. Actions Related to the Customize the existing mobile app to Missoula Downtown correspond with the Heritage Trail or develop a new stand-alone customized app Master Plan for that purpose. The 2019 Downtown Master Plan presents a Take the necessary steps to build public vision for Downtown Missoula over the coming awareness of the new trail, since its success decade. Among the “big ideas” included in the depends of the presence of physical markers plan are heritage-related initiatives for Missoula and well-developed interpretation. to “stay original” and “stay authentic,” while
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 45 ensuring that Downtown Missoula remains a kiosk to improve wayfinding. It also identifies “downtown for all.” opportunities to improve and enhance Higgins Avenue Underbridge to make it an attractive According to the Master Plan, “New bridges, public space featuring art. This infrastructure streets, parks, plazas, gardens, murals, art, provides an ideal opportunity to not only make historical markers, community centers, fire the area more functional and welcoming, but to stations, libraries, and other public buildings integrate heritage interpretation. should explore, and express, Missoula’s uniqueness.” The Missoula Downtown Heritage Caras Park should also provide an anchor for Interpretive Plan is intended to support the Salish and upper Kalispel interpretation along recommendations set forth in the master plan. the riverfront, including Salish language place names and interpretive signs. This heritage Pop-Up Exhibitions interpretive plan supports the master plan’s recommendation of incorporating design The Downtown Master Plan calls for pop-up elements and historical and cultural content art spaces. As the Unseen Missoula Pop-up developed in collaboration with the Séliš-Qlispé Museum has shown, temporary exhibitions Culture Committee into Downtown Missoula bring life to otherwise under- or un-utilized public art and interpretation. spaces. Throughout Downtown Missoula there are spaces that could host temporary Big Art exhibitions relating to its heritage. Places like the Florence Building, the new library, The Downtown Master Plan calls for and the many windows along downtown commissioning large-scale public art. This storefronts could be temporarily transformed includes murals covering dormant and into interpretive exhibitions. The pop- monolithic walls throughout downtown, up exhibitions, which could be curated by activating alley ways for heritage interpretation, organizations, individuals, student groups, and creating centerpiece art installations that or other entities, will draw people downtown distinguish under-utilized spaces. and provide an opportunity to explore aspects Canvasses for Native of Missoula’s heritage that might otherwise American Art by Indigenous go unnoticed, all while revitalizing dormant spaces. Artists Caras Park, Higgins Avenue, The Downtown Master Plan identifies several potential canvasses to showcase & Orange Street Bridges Native American art by local Indigenous The Downtown Master Plan envisions park artists. Preliminary designs include patterned improvements that include a gateway entrance streetscapes and a wall mural. Such features to Caras Park with new signage and a visitor not only beautify the Downtown Missoula landscape, but provide an opportunity to
46 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates A collaborative interpretive program with Pedal Missoula and Unseen Missoula, June 2019. Credit: Benson Media recognize Missoula’s Indigenous peoples. attract audiences and provide a central place where potential audiences can locate heritage Interpretation to Support resources. Other Downtown Master Plan Initiatives Unseen Missoula and Missoula Heritage Identify other opportunities where Online Presence interpretation can support initiatives prescribed by the Downtown Master Plan. The following actions are recommended for This should include interpretation to support the Unseen Missoula site maintained by DMP, enhancements to Caras Park and other https://www.missouladowntown.com/tours/ downtown parks, developing Downtown Trails, unseen-missoula/ or, if deemed beneficial, a Historic Preservation, Historic Resources, more expansive Missoula heritage website. Local Historic Districts, and in Maintaining Create a distinct URL and establish Missoula’s Urban Forest. an independent website for Missoula heritage resources and Unseen Missoula. Actions Related to This should serve as a singular platform Pre-visit/Distance to share information on all of Missoula’s Interpretation heritage-related digital content. Perform routine maintenance and Pre-visit/distance interpretation is an important regularly assess content to ensure that the consideration in any twenty-first century online presence remains a relevant and interpretation, but it presents a unique functional resource. challenge for Downtown Missoula. There are so Feature a selection of historical many channels of information available, it can photographs. become difficult to lead traffic to the preferred source of information. Heritage partners Embed selected video clips from an should develop a robust online presence to Unseen Missoula YouTube Channel,
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 47 which could be developed to host Support and expand current social media Missoula heritage videos. presence by keeping content up-to-date. Feature selected interpretive content Expand content by regularly posting on the site, such as PDFs of mobile app historical photographs featuring many narratives and exhibition text panels; Missoula heritage subjects and eras. allow visitors to download the panels, so Identify opportunities for Downtown that schools, students, and the public-at- Missoula heritage partners to develop and large can experience interpretation beyond share content. the geographic confines of Downtown Missoula. Feature lesson plans that incorporate other elements available on the website, such as research materials like National Register of Historic Places nomination forms, oral histories, links to Sanborn maps, and video clips; partner with schools and educators to develop the lesson plans. Provide information about upcoming
programs and events, maintain the Unseen The rainbow crosswalk adjacent to the Missoula Art Park Missoula signup infrastructure, and include uses public art to demonstrate inclusivity. Credit: HRA links to partner institutions and related historical sites and organizations. Actions Related to Create promotional videos featuring Interpreting Many Historic Downtown Missoula. Perspectives and Downtown Heritage Underrepresented Social Media Heritage
DMP operates a Facebook account and an Missoula’s heritage is a collective fabric of Instagram account, @missouladowntown. many ethnic and religious communities. The The City of Missoula HPO operates a story of Missoula’s Indigenous peoples, as well Facebook account and an Instagram account, as Missoula’s settlement and the experiences @historicmissoula. Unseen Missoula operates of its many communities is fundamental to its an Instagram account @Unseen_Missoula heritage and should continue to be explored, that features historical photographs and especially from a variety of perspectives. It announcements about heritage programming. is also imperative to integrate Missoula’s underrepresented voices into downtown interpretation to provide more accurate,
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Quote integrated into landscape. Credit: NPS comprehensive, and inclusive interpretation implementation of Indigenous heritage there. initiatives should be done through direct collaboration with Native American community Indigenous Heritage organizations and tribal consultation.
Missoula is part of the traditional homelands of Consider ways to integrate Native the Salish and upper Kalispel people. Over the American heritage into other topics, such centuries other Indigenous groups visited the as military history, arts, music, literature, Missoula Valley. Native peoples figured promi- poetry, and transportation. nently in the earliest trade that led to the estab- Highlight Native American heritage lishment of Hell Gate and eventually Missoula. through public art by commissioning The contributions of Indigenous peoples to Indigenous artists to produce work. the community fabric of Downtown Missoula Develop interpretive signs in collaboration cannot be overstated. It is also essential to with the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee interpret Native American history beyond and provide opportunities to incorporate the nineteenth century. Interpretation place-names as part of the Séliš-Qlispé should reveal stories of individual community Ethnogeographic Signs Initiative into members and their Missoula experience. Downtown Missoula. Interpretation of Native American history Honor Missoula’s Indigenous people, should be both stand-alone, integrated into particularly the Salish and upper Kalispel, other topics, and integrated into the downtown through land acknowledgment at public landscape through public art. Importantly, events.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 49 According to “Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgment,” prepared by other individuals to highlight and stories to the U.S. Department of Arts and share that speak to women’s contribution to Culture, “Acknowledgment is a politics, business, the arts, and every other topic simple, powerful way of showing presented in this plan. respect and a step toward Commemorate Missoula’s women’s history correcting the stories and with special programming as part of practices that erase Indigenous Women’s History Month. people’s history and culture and toward inviting and honoring Develop fixed interpretation and the truth.” U.S. Department public art highlighting the lives and of Commerce, usdac.us/ achievements of influential Missoula nativeland women, such as Edna Wilma, Bess Read, and the Sisters of Providence. Assess existing interpretation to ensure that women, and their contributions Incorporate view overlays with historical to Missoula heritage, are represented photographs at riverfront sites. throughout. Identify an opportunities to recognize Collaborate with the University of Missoula as Salish and upper Kalispel Montana Women’s, Gender & Sexuality homelands and their contributions to Studies Department to host public events Missoula heritage by collaborating with downtown. the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee in the African American History naming of a major public works project or in the renaming of existing infrastructure. Missoula’s African American heritage is Collaborate with the Missoula Urban underrepresented in local histories. Recent Indian Health Center in the development scholarship is helping to alleviate some of of interpretation, programming, and this oversight. So, too, should interpretation. events and identify ways to support their Missoula’s black history should be interpreted existing programming and events. on its own and within other topics, such as military history and the arts and should directly Women’s History address both the exceptional stories, such as the bicycle corps, but also the difficult realities Like other historical topics, women’s history of exclusion and racism that African American should be both integrated into Downtown community members encountered. Missoula interpretation and presented on its own. Missoula was home to the first Highlighting Missoula’s African American female representative to the U.S. Congress, history and other underrepresented populations Jeannette Rankin, but there are countless and the challenges they faced provides
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opportunity to understand Missoula’s past from a variety of perspectives.
Identify locations to interpret black history in Missoula in meaningful ways, which can include fixed interpretation, murals, and public programming. Support the efforts of Missoula’s IDEA for Racial Justice to create a mural to commemorate Missoula’s black history. Identify opportunities to commemorate
Missoula’s heritage as part of Black Har Shalom exhibit on the history of Missoula’s Jewish History Month. community at the Unseen Missoula Pop-up Museum. Credit: HRA Collaborate with EmpowerMT, which organizes a variety of events in honor of Provide opportunities for immigrant Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, including communities to collaborate on pop-up events such as Read for Peace, youth art exhibitions related to their history, art, and essay contests, and a community and culture. march, to develop interpretive programming related to Missoula’s black Identify interpretive opportunities to history. link Missoula’s immigrant communities to other facets of community life, such as Immigrant Communities arts, music, restaurants, and businesses.
Missoula has long been home to immigrant Religious Congregations communities, including Irish, Greek, Italian, Hmong, Belorussian, and many more. From Missoula is home to many religions, with the early settlers of Hell Gate to the refugees missionaries figuring prominently in the town’s of SoftLanding, people from many cultures early settlement and churches remaining among contribute to Missoula’s heritage, and their the cornerstones of community ever since. experiences should be included in future Many of the city’s historic churches remain, heritage interpretation. some are gone. Other congregations have never had their own building. Some of these Incorporate heritage interpretation congregations are prominent, while others are into existing downtown events, such underrepresented in local histories. as Germanfest and the International Food and Culture Day, by developing Identify opportunities to interpret all exhibitions about the history of these types of congregations. Missoula communities. Encourage collaboration on heritage
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 51 programming among Missoula faith Unseen Missoula communities and consider the connections Pop-up Museum between the churches and other facets of Missoula’s heritage. Beginning in 2018, the Unseen Missoula program utilized space in the basement of the Collaborate with Downtown Missoula Hammond Arcade building for the final stop churches to offer special history and in its “Basements and Back Alleys” tour. The architectural walking tours. space also provided a venue for several special exhibitions. The availability of a dedicated heritage space provides valuable opportunities Actions Related to to promote Downtown Missoula heritage.
Audience Experience Consider renaming the space now known The following action items are both long- and as the Pop-up Museum, the “Unseen short-term in scope, which recognizes that Missoula Museum” to establish brand some items can be undertaken with existing consistency and to avoid confusion relative resources while others will take considerable to other pop-up exhibitions located planning and outside funding to implement. downtown. Secure a permanent space to for the Wayfinding Unseen Missoula Museum, whether in the Hammond Arcade or elsewhere. Install welcome archways as recommended by the Downtown Master Plan. Provide opportunities for partner entities to utilize the Unseen Missoula Museum Assess how existing and future exterior to promote their organizations and ensure interpretation in the wayfinding plan that the heritage program has regular relates to the overall visitor experience sources of interpretive content. and how it connects with the interpretive themes. Allow exhibitions to remain on a rotating basis, depending on seasonal Complete implementation prescribed by considerations and competing events. the Wayfinding Plan but use interpretive themes to guide content. Build a recurring audience through regular special exhibitions. Integrate the Downtown Missoula Heritage Trail into the wayfinding system Promote exhibitions as part of First Friday and install fixed interpretation in the art walks. vicinity of heritage interpretation anchors. Based on audience reception and participation over time, make annual assessments of the museum space to ensure that it continues to meet the community needs.
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Heritage Tree Program Fixed Interpretation
Missoula’s urban forest is essential to its Fixed interpretive media is an important downtown heritage. The Downtown Master component of downtown heritage Plan recognizes the importance of maintaining interpretation. Interpretive media requires Missoula’s urban forests. Interpretation a substantial investment and should be can support this effort by encouraging the developed with clear goals and messages in community to make personal connections to mind. Consideration should also be given to the Missoula’s urban trees. Municipal heritage tree overall audience experience by using cohesive programs exist in cities throughout the country, design elements and thematic language that including Spokane, Seattle, and Portland. connect it to other interpretive elements. Heritage trees are trees of special importance Undertake a comprehensive review and and their recognition as part of Downtown inventory of all exterior interpretive Missoula heritage can serve to prevent signage to identify worn or obsolete signs their destruction and facilitate community and replace them with new interpretive connections between natural history and media. cultural heritage. Assess existing fixed media, such as kiosks Establish a heritage tree program for and panels, to ensure that it is thematically Downtown Missoula as a collaborative appropriate, is designed with interpretive effort between the City of Missoula Parks goals in mind, and is appropriate for the and Recreation and HPO. desired audience experience. Develop recognition criteria and inventory Develop new interpretation that attracts heritage trees on city property. audiences and captures attention. Develop a program for landowners to list Produce interpretive text that is both their trees on a heritage tree registry. concise and engaging and facilitates Provide interpretive markers to identify personal connections to heritage resources. heritage trees. Use consistent design language derived Produce a Missoula heritage tree from the interpretive themes to build guidebook to allow the public to better cohesion among new interpretive media. understand and connect with Missoula’s Develop and install additional interpretive urban forest. signs related to the landscape, particularly Offer special events and tours hosted the differences between how it looks now by Parks and Recreation staff to and how it looked at various points in time. commemorate heritage trees on Arbor Collaborate with the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Day or Earth Day. Committee to develop and install signage and place names relating to Salish and
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 53 Bold colors, central location, and visual organization Interpretation at the Sgt. Bozo Dog Park at Fort Missoula provide for an effective interpretive experience at Regional Park allows today’s park users to make personal Missoula’s Rail Link Park. Credit: HRA connections to Fort Missoula’s heritage. Credit: HRA
Interpretation at Fort Missoula Regional Park (shown) and Relatively recent heritage values present another layer Milltown State Park, the confluence of the Blackfoot and of the community’s story, such as this public art on a Clark Fork Rivers, are examples of collaboration with the Downtown signal box showing cyclists visiting Adventure Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee.Credit: HRA Cycling. Credit: HRA
upper Kalispel lifeways along the Clark bridge, or embedding poetry on a riverside Fork River. bench. Develop fixed interpretation relating to Develop a City of Missoula flag that underrepresented Missoula communities, is representative of the community’s including the LGBTQ community, ethnic, heritage. and religious groups. Interpretive Programming Develop fixed interpretation relating to many different eras and topics. Interpretive programs includes such things Integrate interpretation into the built as talks, guided walks, and special programs environment, such as painting a high- like living history exhibitions and bicycle water mark from the 1908 floods on a tours. Regardless of the setting, interpretive
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programs, particularly those presented as part a many formats as a means to appeal to a variety of Unseen Missoula, should be developed to of local and visiting audiences. meet the expectations of the audience and Create a series of Unseen Missoula align with the standards of such organizations geocaches located at historic points of as the National Association for Interpretation interest throughout downtown and record and National Park Service. Interpretive them on geocaching.com. Each geocache programming should be presented in a way that should include interpretive text about will promote both understanding and feeling heritage resources. about the subjects being presented, which will ideally support program goals. Collaborate with local taverns and breweries to host pub trivia focused on Develop and implement standards for Missoula heritage. programs that can be used by Unseen Organize a Missoula history story-telling Missoula and partners with a clear link series at downtown taverns, with each between interpretive themes and the venue being the subject of that evening’s content being presented. stories. Facilitate the development of programming Collaborate with the Stories and Stones that provides audiences with the to offer special living history events in opportunity to make personal connections Downtown Missoula. to the meanings being explored. Project historic facades on contemporary Develop thematic programs tailored to buildings, or screen historic concert specific age groups that also meet current performances at current and former music curriculum standards that will facilitate venues. dialogue among students. Partner with Missoula County Public Actions Related to Schools and other area educators to develop a menu of program offerings that identifies Program Administration applicable grade levels, cognitive learning Downtown Missoula lacks a primary entity abilities, and targeted content standards. responsible for interpreting heritage. Rather, it Partner with other organizations, such as depends on a collaboration of city and county Pedal Missoula or the Séliš-Qlispé Culture departments, non-profits, and businesses. It Committee to offer special tours. is the intention of this interpretive plan to support such collaboration and encourage Heritage Entertainment partnerships in all aspects of downtown interpretation. However, a dedicated staff Interpretive programing can not only be person, or persons, tasked with facilitating meaningful, but it can also be entertaining. the overall downtown heritage program could Heritage entertainment should be presented in raise the level of what can be accomplished.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 55 Unseen Missoula’s Basements and Back Alleys tour. Credit: Athena Photography
A program coordinator could support partner heritage interpretation and assist historic grant proposals, grow the Unseen Missoula preservation office responsibilities. program, provide a point of contact for If delegating management responsibility special events, and promote connectivity and to a single position is not feasible, City consistency among newly developed downtown of Missoula Parks and Recreation, City interpretation. Whether such responsibility of Missoula HPO, and the DMP should could be added to an existing position or consider ways to delegate program whether it requires a new position is unclear. management responsibility in order to But identifying a point of contact responsible maximize resources, create consistency for program administration would support among new interpretation, and reduce the ongoing growth of downtown heritage unnecessary administrative overlap. programming and help ensure its viability. Staff Training Program Management Facilitate staff review of existing tours The primary entities involved and programs to consider themes, in Downtown Missoula heritage intended audiences, and desired audience interpretation should consider the experience. feasibility of establishing a heritage Develop and implement additional program coordinator position or adding interpretation training opportunities for program management responsibility Unseen Missoula staff and partners. to an existing position. The heritage program management responsibility Develop interpretive training resources for could exist within one of several possible use by Unseen Missoula staff and partners. downtown entities. If housed within the City of Missoula Historic Preservation Office, the position could serve both
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Actions Related to interpretation alone. They also can appeal to Scholarship younger audiences as well as audiences who are unable to physically visit the site. They can By supporting scholarship, museums and offer multiples languages and can provide audio heritage districts present the opportunity to content for visually impaired audiences and reinvigorate contemporary understanding of alternative content for people of all abilities. historical events. It allows the heritage area to However, it is essential that potential audiences benefit from student/scholar/artist/researcher are made aware of the such resources and that projects, and they, in turn, benefit from any technology-based interpretation is regularly practical experience of their work. maintained and updated.
Collaborate with University of Montana Assess the digital presence of Downtown faculty to provide opportunity for Missoula heritage and ensure that student-led heritage projects. This could adequate resources are available, they are involve public history, public art, film- easily identified by audiences, and that making, drama, and many other areas of mobile app presence supports the goals of study. the heritage interpretive plan. Promote the availability of local research Revise or replace existing mobile app resources at the Missoula Public Library’s tours to coordinate with stops along the Montana Room. proposed heritage trail Provide links to online research resources Digital Kiosks on a dedicated Unseen Missoula website, or other Missoula heritage website. Digital kiosks can be used to feature Encourage the collection of oral histories interpretation, spread information on as part of heritage events. downtown events, and improve wayfinding. Consider the feasibility of installing Actions Related to digital information kiosks at prominent Additional Interpretive downtown locations. Elements Actions Related to An effective interpretive program should strive Collaboration to reach diverse audiences by enhancing its offerings through various forms of media. The success of Downtown Missoula heritage interpretation is dependent on effective Mobile Apps collaboration. Government entities, non- profits, businesses, and individuals all share Mobile apps allow for the delivery of richer the responsibility of communicating Missoula’s and more extensive content than fixed heritage. A concerted effort among these parties
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 57 is essential to developing and maintaining an interpretation related to their history and impactful heritage program. culture. The committee and its staff are experienced in developing interpretive University of Montana panels and maintain other resources. Partnerships Collaborate with Missoula County Public Schools Indian Education Department to Collaborate with academic departments host community programming and events. including the College of Education, The department maintains a variety of Environmental Studies, International resources related to Native American Relations, Native American Studies, heritage and includes information on the History, African-American Studies, many tribes that form Missoula’s Native Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, American community. and Geography to identify ways to build partnerships. Collaborate with American Indian Student Services and Kyiyo: Native Work with faculty to offer field school American Student Association to provide opportunities for students. Develop opportunities for these organizations to additional internship opportunities related host programming and events downtown. to specific courses of study. Collaborate with the University of Collaborate with Art Department faculty Montana Native American Studies to encourage arts, programming, and Department on the development of events related to Missoula heritage. interpretive media and programming. Partner with the Admissions Office Partner with Missoula Urban Indian to offer downtown heritage tours to Health Center on new exhibits and events prospective students. and support their existing heritage events, Tribal Governments, such as the Indigenous Film Festival and Tribal Cultural Entities, Indigenous Art Market. and Native American Media Community Organizations Develop relationships with media outlets Downtown heritage practitioners should to promote Downtown Missoula heritage continuously consult and collaborate with and to utilize available resources. Public tribal governments, tribal cultural entities, entities, like MCAT, maintain extensive and Missoula Native American community resources relating to Missoula heritage. organizations. Numerous hours of video in their archive includes everything from municipal Collaborate with the Séliš-Qlispé committee meetings to concerts. In Culture Committee when developing
58 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
A crowd gathers along Higgins Avenue for an Unseen Missoula event. Credit: Athena Photography
addition, MCAT offers A/V equipment for Develop a Junior Ranger-style activity public use. book. Promote local heritage stories produced by Develop a Missoula Public Art scavenger commercial media, such as local television hunt targeted at families. networks and the Missoulian. Commercial Create Unseen Missoula geocaching media remains an essential vehicle collections featuring a variety of heritage for informing the public on heritage sites. interpretation opportunities and events. Develop Unseen Missoula Educator Materials Actions Related to Prepare an Unseen Missoula resource Educators and Youth guide for teachers. Outreach Create an advisory group of educators Partners and interpretive practitioners should who already teach Downtown Missoula make a concerted effort to build relationships heritage topics that can support with educators and youth program facilitators. development of curriculum materials. Integrate state and national curriculum Age Specific Programming standards into new materials. Offer special Unseen Missoula activities Work with educators to develop lesson and tours to summer camps. plans and other curriculum-related materials.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 59 Actions Related to Identify and collaborate with cultural General Outreach and institutions that interpret Missoula heritage, including the Historical Museum Marketing at Fort Missoula and the Montana Proactive marketing and outreach can expose Museum of Arts and Culture, to identify new audiences to Downtown Missoula heritage opportunities to exhibit their historical and will make heritage more accessible to collections, collaborate through digital existing audiences. offerings, and develop other cooperative learning opportunities to further shared Local and Regional Outreach interpretive goals. Develop special programming for events, Work with community organizations host rotating exhibits, and offer a variety to promote new temporary exhibits, of interpretive tours to ensure that programming, and other special events. heritage program offerings remain relevant Partner with local schools and cultural to their local audience while adding value organizations. to the visitor experience. Work with the Montana Historical Society to develop outreach strategies to market program offerings to heritage tourists elsewhere in Montana.
60 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related Connectivity of Downtown Interpretation
Designate interpretation anchors X
Designate heritage gateways X
Develop a downtown heritage trail X
Actions Related to Special Events
Integrate heritage interpretation into existing special X events
Develop subject-related pop-up exhibitions X
Encourage the production of Missoula heritage- X related documentaries
Partner with local businesses to create a history walk X as part of special events.
Actions Related to the Missoula Downtown Master Plan
Develop pop-up exhibitions X
Caras Park and bridge improvements X
Canvasses for Native American Art by local X Indigenous artists
Big Art X
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 61 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Pre-visit/Distance Interpretation
Unseen Missoula Online Presence
Create a distinct URL and establish an independent website for Missoula heritage resources and Unseen X Missoula
Downtown Heritage Social Media
Support and expand current social media presence X
Actions Related to Interpreting Many Perspectives and Underrepresented Heritage
Indigenous Heritage
Integrate Native American heritage into other topics, such as military history, arts, music, literature, poetry, X and transportation.
Highlight Native American heritage through public art by commissioning Indigenous artists to produce X work.
Honor Missoula’s Indigenous people, particularly the Salish and upper Kalispel, through land X acknowledgment
Incorporate view overlays with historical X photographs at riverfront sites
62 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Interpreting Many Perspectives and Underrepresented Heritage
Indigenous Heritage (con’d)
Develop interpretive signs in collaboration with the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee and provide opportunities to incorporate the Séliš-Qlispé X Ethnogeographic Signs Initiative into Downtown Missoula.
Recognize Missoula as Salish and upper Kalispel homelands and their contribution to Missoula heritage by collaborating with the Séliš-Qlispé X Culture Committee in the naming of a major public works project.
Collaborate with the Missoula Urban Indian Health Center in the development of interpretation, X programming, and events and identify ways to support their existing programming and events.
Women’s History
Commemorate Missoula’s women’s history with special programming as part of Women’s History X Month.
Develop fixed interpretation highlighting the lives X and achievements of influential Missoula women.
Collaborate with the University of Montana Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department to host X public events downtown.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 63 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Interpreting Many Perspectives and Underrepresented Heritage
Women’s History (con’d)
Assess existing interpretation to ensure that women, and their contributions to Missoula heritage, are X represented throughout.
African American History
Identify locations to interpret black history in Missoula in meaningful ways, which can include fixed X interpretation, murals, and public programming
Support the efforts of Missoula's IDEA for Racial Justice to create a mural to commemorate Missoula’s X black history
Identify opportunities to commemorate Missoula’s X heritage as part of Black History Month
Collaborate with EmpowerMT to develop interpretive X programming related to Missoula’s black history
Immigrant Communities
Incorporate heritage interpretation into existing downtown events, such as Germanfest and the International Culture and Food Day, by X developing exhibitions about the history of these Missoula communities
Provide opportunities for immigrant communities to collaborate on pop-up exhibits related to their X history, art, and culture
64 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Interpreting Many Perspectives and Underrepresented Heritage
Immigrant Communities (con’d)
Identify interpretive opportunities to link Missoula’s immigrant communities to other facets of community X life, such as arts, music, restaurants, and businesses
Religious Congregations
Identify opportunities to interpret all types of X Missoula religious congregations
Encourage collaboration on heritage programming among Missoula faith communities and consider the X connections between the churches and other facets of Missoula’s heritage
Collaborate with Downtown Missoula churches to X offer special history and architectural walking tours
Actions Related to Audience Experience
Wayfinding
Install welcome archways as recommended by the X Downtown Master Plan
Asses existing and future exterior interpretation in the wayfinding plan relates to the overall visitor X experience and how it connects with the interpretive themes
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 65 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Audience Experience
Wayfinding (con’d)
Complete implementation prescribed by the Wayfinding Plan but use interpretive themes to X guide content
Integrate the Downtown Missoula Heritage Trail into the wayfinding system and install fixed interpretation X in the vicinity of heritage interpretation anchors
Unseen Missoula Pop-up Museum
Consider naming the existing exhibit space the X Unseen Missoula Museum
Secure a permanent space to for the Unseen Missoula Museum, whether in the Hammond Arcade X or elsewhere.
Allow exhibitions to remain on a rotating basis X
Build a recurring audience through regular special X exhibitions
Promote the exhibitions as part of First Friday art X walks
Based on audience reception and participation over time, make annual assessments of the X museum space to ensure that it continues to meet community needs
Provide opportunities for partner entities to utilize the X museum
66 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Audience Experience
Heritage Tree Program
Establish a heritage tree program for Downtown X Missoula
Develop recognition criteria and inventory eligible X heritage trees
Develop a program for landowners to list their trees X on a heritage tree registry
Provide interpretive markers to identify heritage X trees
Produce a Missoula heritage tree guidebook to allow the public to better understand and connect with X Missoula’s urban forest
Offer special events and tours hosted by Parks and Recreation staff to commemorate heritage trees on X Arbor Day or Earth Day
Fixed Interpretation
Assess existing fixed media, such as kiosk and panels, to ensure that it is thematically appropriate X for the intended audience experience
Undertake a comprehensive inventory and review X of all exterior interpretive signage
Develop new interpretation that attracts X audiences and captures attention
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 67 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Audience Experience
Fixed Interpretation (con’d)
Produce interpretive text that is both concise and engaging and facilitates personal connections to X heritage resources
Develop and install additional interpretive signs X related to the landscape
Collaborate with the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee to develop and install signage and place names X relating to Salish and upper Kalispel lifeways along the Clark Fork River
Develop fixed interpretation relating to X underrepresented Missoula communities
Develop fixed interpretation relating to many X different eras and topics
Integrate interpretation into the built environment, such as painting a high-water mark from the 1908 X floods on a bridge or embedding poetry on a riverside bench
Use consistent design language derived from the interpretive themes to build cohesion among new X interpretive media.
Develop a City of Missoula flag that is representative X of the community’s heritage.
68 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Audience Experience
Heritage Entertainment
Create a series of geocaches located at historic points of interest throughout downtown and record X them on geocaching.com. Each geocache should include interpretive text about heritage resources
Collaborate with local taverns and breweries to host X pub trivia focused on Missoula heritage
Organize a Missoula history story-telling series at downtown taverns, with each venue being the X subject of that evening’s stories
Collaborate with Stories and Stones to offer special X living history events in Downtown Missoula
Project historic facades on contemporary buildings, or to screen a historic concert performances at music X venues
Actions Related to Program Administration
Program Management
Consider the feasibility of establishing a heritage program coordinator position or adding program X management responsibility to an existing position
Consider ways to delegate program management responsibility in order to maximize resources, create X consistency among new interpretation, and reduce unnecessary administrative overlap
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 69 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Program Administration
Staff Training
Facilitate staff review of existing tours and programs to consider themes, intended audiences, and desired X audience experience
Develop and implement additional interpretation training opportunities for Unseen Missoula staff and X partners
Develop interpretive training resources for use by X Unseen Missoula staff and partners
Actions Related to Scholarship
Collaborate with University of Montana faculty to provide opportunity for student-led heritage X projects. This could involve public history, public art, film-making, drama, and many other areas of study
Promote the availability of local research resources X at the Missoula Public Library’s Montana Room
Provide links to online research resources on a dedicated Unseen Missoula website, or Missoula X heritage website
Encourage the collection of oral histories as part of X heritage events
70 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Additional Interpretive Elements
Mobile Apps
Assess the digital presence of Downtown Missoula heritage and ensure that adequate resources are X available, and that mobile app presence supports the goals of the heritage interpretive plan
Revise or replace existing mobile app tours to X coordinate with stops along the proposed heritage trail
Digital Kiosks
Consider the feasibility of installing digital X information kiosks at prominent downtown locations
Actions Related to Collaboration
University of Montana Partnerships
Collaborate with University of Montana faculty to offer field school opportunities for students. Develop X additional internship opportunities related to specific courses of study
Collaborate with Art Department faculty to encourage arts, programming, and events related to Missoula X heritage
Partner with the Admissions Office to offer downtown X heritage tours to prospective students
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 71 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Collaboration
University of Montana Partnerships (con’d)
Reach out to academic departments to identify ways X to build partnerships
Tribal Cultural Entities and the Native American Community
Collaborate with the Séliš-Qlispé Culture Committee when developing interpretation related to their X history and culture
Collaborate with Missoula County Public Schools Indian Education Department to host community X programming and events
Collaborate with the American Indian Student Services and Kyiyo: Native American Student X Association to provide opportunities for these organizations to host programming and events
Partner with Missoula Urban Indian Health Center on X exhibits and events
Media
Develop relationships with media outlets to promote Downtown Missoula heritage and to utilize available X resources
Promote local heritage stories produced by commercial media, such local television networks X and the Missoulian
72 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to Educators and Youth Outreach
Age Specific Programming
Offer special Unseen Missoula activities and tours to X summer camps
Develop a Junior Ranger-style activity book X
Develop a Missoula Public Art scavenger hunt targeted X at families
Create Unseen Missoula geocaching collections X featuring a variety of heritage sites.
Develop Unseen Missoula Educator Materials
Prepare an Unseen Missoula resource guide for X teachers.
Create an advisory group of educators who already teach Downtown Missoula heritage that can support X the development of new curriculum materials
Integrate state and national curriculum standards into X new materials
Work with educators to develop lesson plans and other X curriculum-related materials
Actions Related to General Outreach and Marketing
Local and Regional Outreach
Partner with local schools and cultural organizations X
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 73 RECOMMENDED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Short-Term Mid-Term Long-Term ACTION 2020–2023 2023–2026 2026–2030
Actions Related to General Outreach and Marketing
Local and Regional Outreach (con’d)
Work with community organizations to promote new temporary exhibits, programming, and other special X events
Work with the Montana Historical Society to develop outreach strategies to market program offerings to X heritage tourists elsewhere in Montana
Identify and collaborate with cultural institutions that X interpret Missoula Heritage
Develop special programming for events, host rotating exhibits, and offer a variety of interpretive tours to ensure that heritage program offerings X remain relevant to their local audience while adding value to the visitor experience
Lead Implementation Entities
All entities and organizations involved in Downtown Missoula heritage interpretation, including potential partners, should find direction and inspiration from the recommendations in this plan. However, some of the recommended initiatives require a lead entity responsible for shepherding it forward. The following list identifies one, or more, entities that are best positioned to assume responsibility for such initiatives.
Action Responsible Entity/Entities
Downtown Heritage Trail Downtown Missoula Partnership (DMP)
Pop-up Exhibitions Historic Preservation Office (HPO)/Historic Preservation Commission
Caras Park Improvements Parks and Recreation/DMP
Pre-Visit/Distance DMP/Destination Missoula
Heritage Tree Program Parks and Recreation/HPO
Fixed Interpretation HPO/ Parks and Recreation/DMP
Murals and Public Art Public Art Committee
74 Historica l R esea rch A ssociates PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
The Unseen Missoula Pop-up Museum in the basement of the Hammond Arcade building. Credit: Athena Photography
Summary way to encourage audiences to make personal and emotional connections to Downtown Downtown Missoula is a community with a Missoula. Developing focused programming, rich heritage, and it is a place defined by the enhancing partnerships, and encouraging intersection of natural and cultural landscapes. scholarship, will all contribute to downtown While Downtown Missoula’s heritage is tied heritage interpretation that adds value to the to national and international events, the city’s overall downtown experience, while fostering unique attributes are many. Certainly, Missoula civic pride. It is the hope of HRA and the is full of big stories, but it is the lesser known Interpretive Planning Advisory Committee stories that allow audiences to relate to this that the comprehensive interpretive program place and connect with its heritage. presented in this plan will allow Missoula’s It is the intention of the interpretive plan heritage to remain an essential part of to identify opportunities to communicate Downtown Missoula’s identity as the downtown Missoula’s stories and collective heritage in a continues to evolve and prosper.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 75 PART 4 PLANNING RESOURCES
The recently restored Florence Building lobby allows visitors to experience the look and feel of another era in Missoula history. Credit: HRA PART 4: PLANNING RESOURCES
HRA Project Team Acknowledgments
James Grant, MA, CIP, Historical Research HRA and the project team extend our gratitude Associates, Inc. to the Montana Department of Commerce for Morgen Young, MA, CIP, Historical Research supporting this project and all of the individuals Associates, Inc. and organizations who took the time to speak to us. Thank you to the members of the MDF Kayla Blackman, MA, Historical Research Board of Directors who personally supported Associates, Inc. this effort every step of the way. And a special Eldon Potter, Bryan Potter Design thanks to the volunteers who served on the interpretive planning advisory committee for their work guiding this effort throughout the Interpretive Planning process. Advisory Committee Alan Newell, Missoula Downtown Foundation Definitions Tom Bensen, Arts Missoula Implementation Plan: Divides the Emy Scherrer, City of Missoula recommended actions in the interpretive plan Jolene Brink, Missoula Historic Preservation into achievable short-, mid-, and long-term steps. Commission Interpretation: Defined by the National Linda McCarthy, Downtown Missoula Association for Interpretation as “a mission- Partnership based communication process that forges Barb Neilan, Destination Missoula emotional and intellectual connections between Robert Giblin, Downtown Missoula the interests of the audience and the meanings Partnership inherent in the resource.” Courtney LeBlanc, Missoula Public Art Interpretive Plan: A document that defines Committee the overall vision and long-term interpretive Kyle Volk, University of Montana goals of a site. Kalina Wickham, Downtown Missoula Partnership Matt Lautzenheiser, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula Kristjana Eyjólfsson, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 77 Select Interpretation Select Topical Resources Resources
Larsen, David L. Meaningful Interpretation: Non-Fiction How to Connect Heart and Minds to Places, Objects, and Other Resources. Second Edition. Fort Arlee, Johnny, Robert Bigart, Pete Beaverhead, Washington, PA: Eastern National, 2011. Rex C. Haight, and Tony Sandoval. Over a Century of Moving to the Drum: Salish Indian National Park Service. Comprehensive Interpretive Celebrations on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Planning. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Pablo, MT: Salish Kootenai College Press, 1998. the Interior, National Park Service, Fall 2000. Bobbitt, Mary. “The Historical and Cultural National Park Service. “The Secretary of the landscape of the Missoula Valley During the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of 19th and 20th Centuries.” 2015. Graduate Historic Properties and Guidelines for the Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Treatment of Cultural Landscapes.” Accessed Papers. 4541. January 4, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/tps/ standards/four-treatments/landscape-guidelines/ Brooks, David. Restoring the Shining Waters: index.htm. Superfund Success at Milltown, Montana. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. Rose, Julia. Interpreting Difficult History at Museums and Historic Sites. New York: Rowman Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. & Littlefield, 2016. Explore the River: Bull Trout, Tribal People, and the Jocko River. Lincoln: University of Tilden, Freeman. Interpreting Our Heritage. Nebraska Press, (interactive DVD), 2011. Fourth Edition. Bruce Craig, editor. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. 2007. Fire on the Land: Tribal People and Fire in the Northern Rockies. Lincoln: University of U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. Nebraska Press, (interactive DVD), 2006. “Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgment. Accessed September 12, 2019. Chacon, H. Rafael. The Original Man: the Life https://usdac.us/nativeland. and Work of Montana Architect A.J. Gibson. Missoula: University of Montana Press, 2008.
Christgau, John. Enemies: World War II Alien Internment. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
Cohen, Stan, and Donald C. Miller. The Big Burn: the Northwest’s Forest Fire of 1910. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1978.
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Gordon, Greg. When Money Grew on Trees: Mathews, Allan James. A Guide to Historic A.B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron. Missoula. Helena: Montana Historical Society Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Press, 2002.
Jones, Tate. Fort Missoula. Charleston, SC: Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee Arcadia Publishing, 2013. and Elders Cultural Advisory Council, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The Kemmis, Daniel. The Good City and the Good Life: Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Renewing the American Community. Boston, MA: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Savitt, Todd L., and Janice Williams. “Sisters’ Koelbel, Lenora, and Stan Cohen. Missoula the Hospital: The Sisters of Providence and St. Way It Was: a Portrait of an Early Western Town. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, Montana, 1873- Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1890.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 2004. 53, no. 1 (2003): 28–43. Landau, Elaine, and Ben Klaffke.Smokejumpers . Smith, Minie. The Missoula Mercantile: the Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 2002. Store That Ran an Empire. Charleston, SC: The The Missoulian. Missoula Memories. Missoula, History Press, 2012. MT: Pediment Publishing, 2016. Space, Ralph S. The Lolo Trail. Missoula, MT: MacDonald, Douglas H. Montana before History: Historic Montana Publishing, 2001. 11,000 Years of Hunter-Gatherers in the Rockies and Stone, Arthur L. Following Old Trails. Missoula, Great Plains. Missoula, MT: n.p., 2012. MT: Morton John Elrod, 1913. Maechling, Philip, and Stan Cohen. Missoula. Stone-Manning, Tracy, and Emily Miller, eds. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2010. The River We Carry With Us: Two Centuries of Malone, Michael P., Richard B. Roeder, and Writing from the Clark Fork Basin. Livingston, William L. Lang. Montana: a History of Two MT: Clark City Press, 2002. Centuries. Seattle: University of Washington Sundermann, Elizabeth “Libi”. “A ‘Temple Press, 2001. of Pleasure’: Missoula’s WILMA Theatre.” Manning, Nikki M., and Kelly J. Dixon. Historic Montana: The Magazine of Western History 63, no. Underground Missoula. Charleston, SC: The 1 (2013): 56–63. History Press, 2015. United States Department of the Interior, Martin, Greg. “Hiding in Plain Sight: St Paul National Park Service. “Register of Historic A.M.E. Church & Missoula’s Forgotten Black Places Nomination Form: Missoula Downtown History.” Medium, November 13, 2018. https:// Historic District,” 2009. medium.com/@gregmartin_76328/hiding-in- plain-sight-st-paul-a-m-e-church-missoulas- forgotten-black-history-758993658a4a.
Missoula Downtown Heritage | Interpretive Plan | January 2020 79 Teit, James. “The Flathead Group,” in “The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus,” ed. Franz Boas, in 45th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1927-28. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1930.
Van Valkenburg, Carol. “Axis Nation ‘Detainees’ and in the West during Japanese Enemy Aliens World War II.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 61, no. 1 (2011): 20–94. http://www.jstor.org.weblib.lib.umt. edu:8080/stable/23054776.
Fiction
Blunt, Judy. Breaking Clean. Oxford: Isis, 2004.
Earling, Debra Magpie. Perma Red: New York: BlueHen Books, 2003.
Evans, Nicholas. The Smoke Jumper. n.p.: Sphere, 2007.
Maclean, Norman, and Ivan Doig. A River Runs through It. n.p.: High Bridge Company, 2006.
McNickle, D’Arcy. Wind from an Enemy Sky. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, reprint 1978.
McNickle, D’Arcy. The Surrounded. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, reprint 1978.
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125 Bank St #500 Missoula, MT 59802 Phone: (406) 721-1958 www.hrassoc.com