There is an urban legend that a bear cage that resides in Greenough Park, the remnants of a Missoula zoo, once held the University of Montana’s grizzly mascot. While the tale is unlikely to be true, information surrounding Missoula’s rich history in the park and the Lower Rattlesnake neighborhood can be equally interesting.
Unseen Missoula’s tour of the neighborhood takes tourists and curious locals on a trip back in time to explore information about the park and the Greenough family’s history, to visit sites of historical Native American encampments and the old Missoula cemetery and Chinese burial grounds, and to learn other information surrounding the area.
“As the white settlers moved in, the Rattlesnake became a bit of a refuge from that stinky, noisy city that was rapidly industrializing and developing,” said Janet Frey to a tour group of four locals on July 19. “This was a place you could get away from the mess of the city and enjoy the comfort and coolness of this valley.”
The tour takes groups on an entirely outdoor walk of around a mile over the span of two hours. Along with her own personal knowledge and findings from her own curiosity about Missoula’s history, Frey presented the group with photos, maps, historic building locations and old news articles that took the participants back in time.
One highlight of the tour included stories about a popular dance pavilion started around 1903 that was located in a privately owned space surrounded by Greenough Park. The city believed that the pavilion was upsetting the natural environment of the park and decided to build a fence.
George Wolcott, who owned the pavilion and had been previously arrested for holding a dance on a Sunday, believed the city was building a part of the fence on his property.
“The city sent out workers to build a fence along the park here and George has a fit,” Frey said to the group. “He comes out, confronts these poor guys building the fence, whips open his jacket, shows his gun, and threatens dire consequences if they don’t stop building that fence right away.”
Frey said that later on Wolcott was arrested for getting caught cutting down a fence the city had put over the front of his bridge that crossed Rattlesnake Creek into the park.
Another point of contention regarding Greenough Park management was the zoo that was opened in 1904. According to Frey, the zoo held deer, beavers and other local fauna, including black bears.
The Greenough family was upset with the city for the zoo and its contrast to their idea of maintaining the park in its natural state. As a result, Thomas Greenough, who donated the park land, wrote a letter to the city calling for its removal.
Shortly after Greenough’s death, and after a delivery truck driver allegedly got attacked by one of the deer, the city decided to remove the animals from the park. Later on, his children sued the city over their management of the park and won, which created the 13-point management plan that is still intact today.
Frey also told the group the background behind the name of Hellgate Canyon, located between Mount Jumbo and Mount Sentinel. When French fur traders started traveling into the valley, an area where many tribes passed through to hunt bison, they encountered skeletons from ambushes between the Salish and Blackfeet tribes. Allegedly, one of the fur traders referred to the area as "Porte de l'Enfer," meaning gate to hell.
The last stop of the tour took locals to homes built on the location of the old Missoula cemetery and Chinese burial grounds. According to Frey, on several occasions while they were building houses in the area, they found human remains.
When Missoula's first cemetery was relocated away from the Lower Rattlesnake, many of the bodies were left behind and eventually built over. Frey said a large portion of the bodies left behind belonged to Chinese residents.
"When they had funerals, they would start at Front Street and they had these elaborate processions to bring the dead up here to bury," Frey said. "They continued to bury their dead here long after the white settlers started moving over."
In 2025, the city marked the "forgotten cemetery" with a plaque detailing some of its history. The plaque states that as many as 50 unmarked graves remain at the site.
“I love this local history,” Frey said to the group. “This particular tour is near and dear to my heart.”
The Downtown Missoula Partnership offers five Unseen Missoula Tour options, each showcasing a different part of Missoula’s history. Most of the tours are offered May through September, and they offer one October-only tour that features haunted history for the Halloween season.
During the 2025 season, Unseen Missoula had around 830 guests and gave about 100 tours.
Unseen Missoula tour ticket prices are $18, with room for up to 20 people per tour, and $20 for private tours with a minimum of 10 people. The October Scream and Spirits tours are $25 per person.