South bank of the Clark Fork River, about 1890. According to Salish elder Louis Adams, these canvas teepees were the temporary homes of Salish who came to Missoula to harvest bitterroot, which at one time was abundant throughout the valley and the surrounding hills. Salish harvesting this staple root were a common sight in Missoula until the 1960s, when development of the prime growing areas and changes in native lifeways changed this. (72-12, attributed to Charles Wadsworth Lombard, K. Ross Toole Archives, The University of Montana—Missoula)
 

This area changed from food source to transportation center when it became the Missoula railyard for the Milwaukee, Chicago & St. Paul Railroad, completed in 1908. The railroad went bankrupt in 1980 and removed the railyard. Now the area is home to popular walking and bicycling trail, athletic fields—and a small piece of restored prairie where the tiny bitterroot flowers bloom every spring. (Photo by Marcy James)