Old Missoula

Streetcar Familiar Sight For More Than 20 Years

The streetcar was a familiar part of the Missoula scene for more than two decades with its clanging bell, snap of electricity and squeaking, grinding wheels lingering in the memory of many a Garden City resident.

The first streetcar in the city apparently was a horse-drawn vehicle which had its start around 1890. Its track went from the Northern Pacific passenger station, then at the north end of Woody street, south to Front street, east to Higgins, north to main, west to Woody, then back to the passenger station. The horses were kept in a barn near the corner of Woody and West Broadway.

Line Extended

In 1895 this line was extended south on Higgins to South 4^th street and west on 4^th to the 900 block, two blocks north of where the Willard School now is located. This was the site of Montana State University when it opened for its first classes.

There also was a bicycle racing track west of the end of this line. Old-timers recall times when they had to get out and push to start the car, especially if there were a pretty full load.

The electric street railway started operation on May 11, 1910, on the University line. This ran from the NP Passenger Station south on Higgins avenue, east on Connell avenue, south on Maurice avenue through the campus, west on Evans avenue, then south on Ronald avenue to the end of the line at Sussex avenue a block north of South avenue. After it left the campus, there was little to the east and south of this line but vacant flats in those days, although the Old Country Club, now the MSU golf course, was just a block south of the end of the line.

Went to Fairgrounds

Later the other lines were put into operation – Daly, West Side, East Side, Ft. Missoula and Bonner. At one time a line ran from the carbarns, the end of the Daly Line, to the fairgrounds. The West Side line at one time extended to the sugar factory west of the city. The total mileage of the system at its peak was about 22.

The cars arrived here in 1910 on the Northern Pacific Railway on flatcars fitted with rails. They were unloaded from the NP Bitter Root branch line on rails built on inclines leading up to the flatcars.

Initial Tour

At 2:50 p.m. May 11, the first car left the barns in the Daly Addition, rolled across the Higgins Avenue Bridge at 3 p.m. to East Cedar (now Broadway), where it completed its load for the initial tour of the lines.

Before the run was completed, the car had traversed the line to the University, to the car barns and to Bonner, making the afternoon’s run about 22 miles.

Three cars were run to the University the next day to handle the interscholastic crowds, and by the next week full service was under way.

Operations were directed by S. R. Inch who was assisted by H. L. Bickenbach, engineer.

The system included 21 miles of track, spurs and sidings, 10 40-passenger cars equipped for one-man operation; a snow sweeper; a 40-ton electric locomotive, a work car and six freight flatcars. At the height of its operation in the early ‘20s it was termed the most efficient line in the country, its single motorman-conductor setup a mode for other cities to follow.

The line was operated from 1910 until 1924 by the Missoula Street Railway Co., a part of the Missoula Light and Water Co. The Montana Power Co. acquired the line in 1928, and operated it until the abandonment in 1932 when buses took over.

The last pay customer on the route was Spencer Esmay, a motorman who had finished his run a few minutes before, walked down the street and paid a token for a ride of a few blocks to the car barns. In so doing, he completed a cycle. As a boy, he had taken a free ride to Bonner on the first trip in 1910.

A few of the cars, their motors, wheels and seats removed, were immobilized in Missoula as cabins in tourist courts.