Kalispell, MT

Additional Information

Chambers + Visitor Information

• Kalispell Convention & Visitor Bureau
• Kalispell Area Chamber of Commerce

Annual Events

• Arts in the Park
• Northwest Montana Fair & Rodeo
• Death by Chocolate Fundraiser
• Glacier Jazz Stampede

History

The quaint city of Kalispell, Montana sits among towering mountain ranges in a valley filled with crystal clear lakes. It is known for its outdoor oriented culture and its proximity to vast recreation areas like Glacier National Park and many other wilderness areas.

It was founded in 1887 as Demmersville but quickly turned into a ghost town as the Great Northern Railroad determined a city sight that it preferred. Kalispell became a city in 1891, just before the first railroad car pulled into Main Street, downtown Kalispell, on New Year's Day, 1892. A huge celebration took place immediately and a silver stake was nailed into the center tie to mark its beginning. Community members had donated silver coins to be melted down to make the stake. The railroad brought Kalispell many tourists, pioneers and businessmen. Over the years the railroad has turned the city into a booming industrial city with farmers, sawmills, and flour mills. As the largest city in northwest Montana, with a population of 13,000, it is also its trade center.

Kalispell today represents little of what it once meant to Native tribes like the Salish, Blackfoot, Kutenai, and Kalispel. Before pioneers moved into northern Montana, Native Americans hunted and gathered over a vast area of land. They subsided on buffalo, deer, and elk, and gathered plants like bitterroot, moss, wild onions, Indian potatoes, and sarvis berries. They created ways to preserve food so that it would last through colder months. In 1855 they were forced to surrender the land the claimed and move to Flathead Reservation, an area in the Lower Flathead River Basin. Around 4,000 members live on the Reservation today. You can learn more about their history by visiting a tribal museum, the People's Center, located in Pablo.