Historical Fort Missoula

Education

Summer Day Camp:
It's a Homesteader's Life for Me

Summer Day Camp Flyer

Download Day Camp Flyer (PDF)

Download the Registration Form (PDF)

OR Register Online.

The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula invites you to attend their second summer day camp, "It's a Homesteader's Life for Me".

The camp will feature a different theme each day; visiting an actual historic homestead, learning traditional crafts, attending school in a one-room school house, performing chores typically done around a homestead, visiting the MCPS Ag.Ed. Center's animals and learning how to saddle up and ride a pony. The final day of camp will be spent preparing food over an open fire and getting ready for a celebration meal and program that evening for campers and their families.

Date: July 16-20, 2012 | August 13-17, 2012
Time: 9:00-5:00 | 9:00-5:00
Cost: $135.00
Ages: 10-12 years of age
Minimum participants: 5
Maximum participants: 15

*** Registration required 1 week prior to camp. ***

For registration material and questions please call:
Dorene Might-Dyer at 728-3476 ext 3 or
Carolyn Thompson at 728-3476 ext 4.

Missoula History Minutes

TEMP

32. William T. Hamilton

In 1858, William T. Hamilton and a Scottish halfbreed named McKay were hired as army scouts at Fort Walla Walla. On their way to eastern Montana to investigate a rumor that the Indians east of the Rockies were planning an uprising, they camped one night where Missoula is now. Hamilton noticed all of the Indian trails converging there and it struck him that the place would be a good spot to establish a trading post. Hamilton returned, alone, to the Missoula Valley in the fall. He built a two-room log cabin west of where the Rattlesnake Creek meets the Clark Fork River. Although his establishment never attained the status of a genuine trading post, he did sell whisky. His cabin is considered to be the first building constructed in what is now the city of Missoula. Hamilton remained in the valley until 1864 when he moved to Fort Benton.