About Us—Missoula is a Special Place

It is hard to top Missoula as a beautiful place to live and study. Missoula is ringed by snow-capped mountains and two rivers, the Clark Fork and the Bitterroot, flow through town. If you enjoy outdoor recreation or want a peaceful place to study, you will fall in love with Missoula.

Downtown Missoula across the Clark Fork River

Missoula is a friendly town, full of active folks who appreciate their natural surroundings and are dedicated to preserving them. People of all ages participate in outdoor activities, from running in the annual River Bank Run to climbing to the "M" on Mount Sentinel. Biking is a way of life, both for transportation and recreation, and Missoula is considered one of the top biking communities in the country.

Missoula's quaint downtown is only a few blocks from campus. Here you will find numerous buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places housing boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and coffee shops. Down by the river is Caras Park, where the town turns out to enjoy free music and entertainment. Here, you will also find A Carousel for Missoula, one of the few in the country. The horses were hand-carved by local Missoulians as a labor of love.

For a small city, Missoula is remarkably sophisticated. We enjoy many of the luxuries of big-city life, such as art galleries and museums, high-quality performing arts, and a huge variety of restaurants, first-run movies, and fantastic shopping, without the hassles of big-city traffic and crime. Missoula is a great place to live, raise a family, and get an education.