Missoulians touted the city’s accessibility, its size, situation and cultured community in securing funding for the University. They boasted that the town had two rivers flowing through it, beautiful mountains surrounding it, and a “moderate and salubrious climate.”

Missoulians flock to a parade on Higgins Avenue in 1910. This shot looks north from Broadway Street.	Missoula in 1890, looking east and north toward the Rattlesnake area.
East Broadway in 1925, from the roof of the Palace Hotel.	West Front Street looking west (1900).
North Higgins and many cross streets in downtown Missoula were waved in brick until the 1960's; some of the bricks removed were used in the sidewalks of UM's Oval.
The first Higgins Street Bridge (1892), looking south to the Bitterroot Mountains.