Missoula was founded in the 1860s as a regional trading center for the timber community and dubbed the Garden City for its dense trees, lush green landscape and early growing season relative to the rest of Montana. Nestled in the heart of the northern Rockies, the city sits at 3,500 feet at the base of Mt. Sentinel, where five valleys and the Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Clark Fork rivers converge. The city is just a few hours from Glacier National Park to the north and Yellowstone to the south, with Flathead Lake an hour away.

Montana’s cultural center, Missoula has big-city sophistication that includes performing and visual arts at the community, university and professional levels, plus a historic downtown with unique restaurants and a wide variety of shopping housed in architecturally significant buildings. But the city’s character is what is most striking – still that of an unpretentious small town where “community” is a key word. Residents look forward to stopping to chat with one another on recreational trails, getting together to admire local produce at the Farmer’s Market or volunteering en masse for an effort such as building a carousel for Missoula.