Before the automobile became a ubiquitous part of the American landscape, street cars provided an efficient form of urban transportation. Missoula’s first streetcar system, a horse-drawn car on tracks, operated briefly during the 1890s. William A. Clark, a prominent Butte businessman and former U.S. Senator, soon developed a more elaborate system powered by hydroelectricity produced at his Milltown Dam. The streetcar system operated continuously until 1932, reaching a peak capacity of seven lines serving downtown and radiating out to Missoula’s other districts. The streetcar infrastructure included a rail trestle over Rattlesnake Creek, remnants of which can still be seen today near the pedestrian bridge behind the Missoula Fire Department’s Station No. 1.

The Missoula streetcar system, like similar systems operating in Great Falls, Butte, Bozeman, and Helena, eventually fell out of public favor. A reporter from the Daily Missoulian wrote, “No one is at fault, no one to blame except, perhaps, the 95% of Missoula citizens who didn’t patronize the cars while they were operating on regular schedules every day in the year. . . . When the last car rolled by on its way to the barns somewhere near midnight, one felt that night had finally settled down and that it was time to turn in.”

Many of the defunct street cars became tourist cabins, while some took on other uses. The city initially covered the rails on Higgins Avenue and other streets with asphalt until they were removed and repaved many years later. In 1974, the only remaining car, the #50, was donated to the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. With the help of grants and donations, the streetcar is fully restored and is now housed at the museum.

Credits and Sources:

Briggeman, Kim. “‘Pretty’ Streetcar No. 50 Returns to Missoula,”Missoulian, September 1, 2012.

Cohen, Stan. Missoula County Images, volume II. Missoula: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1993.

Koelbel, Lenora. Missoula, The Way It Was: A Portrait of an Early Western Town. Missoula: Gateway Publishing and Printing, 1972.

Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. “Missoula History Minutes: Missoula’s First Streetcar System.”http://www.fortmissoulamuseum.org/minutes.php, accessed May 6, 2015.

Mathews, Allan James. “A Guide to Historic Missoula,”Montana Mainstreets, vol. 6. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 2003.

_________. “Missoula’s Streetcars and Streetlights: An Historic Overview.” Prepared for WGM Group, 2008.

National Park Service. “National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Missoula Downtown Historic District,” 2003.

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