The Neighborhood That Isn’t Technically a Missoula Neighborhood

We've been exploring Missoula as part of a series on Missoula's many neighborhoods, with information provided by the City of Missoula and its Neighborhood Profiles. As we reviewed each neighborhood, an interesting phenomenon appeared: a popular Missoula neighborhood wasn't included in the profiles.

See if you can guess which area of Missoula we're talking about by looking at the map below.

If you guessed East Missoula you'd be right. East Missoula is outside of city limits and technically, isn't one of Missoula's 20 neighborhoods. Take a look at the map of Missoula's city limits:

Related: Getting to Know Missoula's Neighborhoods 

If you look to the right side of the map, that white space north of the river is East Missoula. Interestingly, just to the west, the Marshall Canyon Neighborhood is technically within city limits.

It's also interesting to see the white squares within the yellow parts of the map above--those areas are outside of Missoula city limits, too.

What is East Missoula?

East Missoula may not be a Missoula Neighborhood but it is a census-designated place. The United States Census Bureau doesn't have a listing for East Missoula, likely because it's smaller than 5,000 people, but a Wikipedia entry says the population was just over 2,000 people in the 2010 census.

Residents of East Missoula can get involved with the East Missoula Community Council to stay informed about things that affect the area.

Key Feature of East Missoula: Sha-Ron Fishing Access Site

The ever-popular fishing and floating site, Sha-Ron Fishing Access went through a renovation recently. Now, visitors can park in the new parking lot that's just down the road from the fishing site rather than along Highway 200. Remember, when Sha-Ron gets busy during the summer, you can always take a shuttle to the access site from the University of Montana.

And that's a good reminder, even though East Missoula isn't in city limits, it's only minutes from Missoula. As the Missoula Chamber of Commerce says, "East Missoulians can make it to the airport in 10 minutes and can be downtown in 5."