The Missoula Marathon’s twenty-sixth mile crosses the Higgins Avenue Bridge and finishes on its north end, serving as one of many notable events in the river crossing’s long and storied history.

Several “Higgins Avenue Bridges” have been built over the years, with construction of the first beginning in 1872 and completed the following year. The original bridge angled to the southwest and connected Missoula with the Bitterroot Wagon Road (today’s Stephens Avenue) on the south side of the Clark Fork River. This original Missoula bridge is notable for having hosted a large procession of the Bitterroot Salish as they crossed the Clark Fork River on their trek north to the Flathead Reservation after being forcefully removed from their Bitterroot Valley homelands.

The city completed the next incarnation of the in 1893, but not without contentious debate over whether it would connect to the old wagon road. The Higgins family, for whom Higgins Avenue and the bridge are named, did not favor Stephens Avenue as the terminus for the new bridge. Rather, they contended, the bridge should run straight to connect with South Higgins Avenue. The public voted on the side of the Higgins family, thus the new Higgins Bridge connected with South Higgins Avenue.

Flooding engulfed large portions of Missoula in June 1908 and the Higgins Avenue Bridge collapsed in the flood. It was replaced by a temporary footbridge that once again connected north and south Missoula. William A. Clark, a local politician and owner of the Missoula Street Railway Company, donated $20,000 towards construction of a new bridge. This new bridge opened in 1909, complete with new trolley tracks, and remained in use until being replaced in 1961 by the bridge that stands today.

Credits and Sources:

Cohen, Stan. Missoula County Images. Missoula, Mont.: Pictorial Histories Pub., 1993.

Koelbel, Lenora. Missoula the Way It Was: "a Portrait of an Early Western Town." 5th Print. ed. Missoula, Mont.: Pictorial Histories Pub., 1987.

Mathews, Allan James. A Guide to Historic Missoula. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2002.

Historic photos courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.