Photo: Al Huntsman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A Montana state park preserving the Bitterroot Valley site of early mission, trading post, and settlement history.
99 Fort Owen Ranch Rd. Stevensville, MT 59870 · Stevensville, MT
Fort Owen State Park sits on land within the homeland of the Séliš (Salish) people and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site began as a Catholic mission in the early 1840s and later became a trading post and agency under John Owen in 1850. Visitors can tour the adobe East Barracks, built in 1857, and see the original root cellar and well. Interpretive signs and exhibits across the grounds describe the site's firsts, including Montana's early sawmill, gristmill, irrigation system, and school. The park is small and open seasonally, with a day-use fee for nonresidents.
The closest stops to Fort Owen State Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
History museum on the 32-acre Fort Missoula grounds with more than 20 preserved buildings and exhibits on the fort, timber industry and WWII internment.
Transit: reachable by public transit
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A hands-on science museum on the second floor of the Missoula Public Library, run by the University of Montana.
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A University of Montana art museum with a collection of nearly 12,000 objects, including much contemporary Western art.
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Saturday outdoor market of local artists and craftspeople in downtown Missoula, running May through September.
Transit: reachable by public transit
25 mi awaySwitch it up: Shopping
Montana college and outdoor town at the confluence of three rivers in the Northern Rockies.
Transit: reachable by public transit
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Preserved remains of an 1890s silver mining town reached by a steep, winding mountain road.
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