The Higgins Avenue bridge, looking toward the Hellgate Canyon, about 1900. The bridge was constructed in 1893, replacing a twenty-year-old span. Visible under and behind the bridge is Shacktown, a collection of boarding-houses and businesses south of East Front Street, and the large island that divided the two channels of the Clark Fork River. Visible just over the right side of the bridge is a house, likely the Parsons house on South Fifth Street East. At the far right is a small grocery and general store to serve the developing South Side. (BI e-8, Morton J. Elrod Photographs, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana—Missoula)
 
  

The photographer had some difficulty locating the place to take this image because both the river and the bridge have moved so extensively. The bridge in the previous image was mostly destroyed in the 1908 flood; the remaining span was moved upstream and is now part of the Van Buren Street pedestrian bridge. That flood also washed away most structures on the island. In 1962, while rebuilding the Higgins Avenue bridge, the island was removed and the north channel of the river was filled in; it is now Caras Park. The Holiday Inn stands on part of the former Shacktown. (Photo by Kristi Hager, 2006)