Lower Rattlesnake Drainage, nestled in a watershed tributary of the Clark Fork River, has a far-reaching history intertwined with Missoula’s evolution. Salish Indians named Rattlesnake Creek and Captain Meriwether Lewis recorded it in his homeward trek through the area in 1806. William T. Hamilton operated a trading post nearby from 1858 to 1865 and the Mullan Road, built in 1860, skirted the area crossing Rattlesnake Creek. The creek fueled the sawmill of Missoula Mills from whence the earliest settlement sprang. The district accommodated the town’s first cemetery and the creek supplied Missoula’s first water system.
On the heels of the railroad in 1883, the Town Company and Woody Additions were platted here in the Lower Rattlesnake and by 1890, the neighborhood was home to railroad workers and a variety of skilled laborers such as teamsters, carpenters, and machinists. Greenough Park (see below), buttressed between the commercial and residential neighborhoods and the Greenoughs’ own architect-designed home that once stood on Vine Street, enticed middle income families to settle along the district’s quiet streets.
Spanning the 1880s through the 1940s, simple workers’ cottages represent early development while Craftsman Bungalow and traditional style residences speak to the slightly later influx of middle income residents. Unique for its scenic amenities, unusual evolution and isolated geography, the district today bolsters Missoula’s claim as the “Garden City.” (Click on image for larger size map.)