'Great equalizer': Missoula officials celebrate Clark Fork River access points

"This is about the community coming together, connecting with the river, connecting with each other, and I am just so incredibly proud to be in the position of mayor to celebrate with you what this means for our community," Davis said. 

The project, which was completed over last fall and winter, added four stone staircases between the Madison Street Bridge and the Beartracks Bridge. It also closed off some man-made access points that were eroding the river bank. 

In total the project cost $2.5 million and was paid for by the city's 2018 open space bond, the city's conservation mill levy and private donations from the Missoula Downtown Foundation.

Linda McCarthy, the executive director of the Missoula Downtown Partnership, which operates the foundation, said it was a priority of businesses and residents in the area to improve the river. 

"Water is life-giving, and the people that live and work here care very deeply about the natural landscape," McCarthy said. 

The updates build off a similarly-styled terrace at Caras Park that was completed in 2025.  

Morgan Valliant, the city's associate director of ecosystem services, said the city has dedicated decades of work to restore the river from its previous life of industrial waste. 

The river first served Indigenous populations for thousands of years, but industry that moved into the state left mine waste and other contaminates in the waterway. 

The city first started upgrading the corridor in the 1980s with the first open space bond meant to create a trail system alongside the waterway. For the last 15 years, however, more focus has been put on the river itself. 

"Missoulians are starting to interact with this river again in ways they had not done in a long time, and we realized we needed to formally connect our downtown river trails and the Clark Fork River," Valliant said. 

Since 2012, the city has eyed adding access points in the river and worked with several groups like the Clark Fork Coalition, the Missoula Water Quality District and Missoula County to make improvements. 

The result of the restoration and access project also restored 500 linear feet of eroding bank while closing off an additional 2,000 feet of bank by installing a new fence line. 

Valliant said while the city does not often like placing fence line by the river, the goal of the barrier is to boost riparian habitat. 

McKenna Flannigan, the coordinator for the Missoula River Ambassadors, said she has already noticed improvements along the riverbank compared to last year. 

"It used to be, even last year, there was a lot of degradation on that bank because people didn't have a good place to get in and out of the river," Flannigan said.

The river ambassador program is a partnership between the city, county, Clark Fork Coalition, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Missoula Conservation District and ASUM Transportation. 

Its mission is to provide information, supplies and guidance at popular river access points. It also promotes environmental stewardship, provides safety tips and captures river data.

On one Saturday in July, more than 1,000 floaters could pass through the downtown section of the river, Flannigan said.

"Since the removal of the Milltown dam, this has become such an appealing recreation corridor to people, and more and more people are finding out about that every year," Flannigan said. "And every year our infrastructure improves that allows people access to the river."

Davis said investing in the river is important to the city because it allows people of all backgrounds and means to recreate.

And on Friday, people were swimming, bringing their dogs to play fetch, fishing, floating and enjoying the views the new hardened access points provide. 

"It really is in some ways the great equalizer," Davis said. "It is really an amazing part of Missoula's identity and our identity is the thing that connects us in so many ways."