Book Blockade Over; Fort Missoula Now Accepting Donations

For Missoula book lovers, it's been a problem to be celebrated. A case of having "plenty to choose from."

But if you're a book owner looking to pare down your collection, the recent "book blockade" at The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula has meant the volumes have kept stacking up, without any way to share them.

Now that situation has remedied itself, thanks in large part to the huge number of volumes that were sold during the annual "Friends of the Museum" book sale that finally returned last fall after a two-year interruption.

Normally, the Friends would be able to pare down all the donations every year, selling off thousands of volumes and keeping pace with the number of books that were being gifted for re-sale. But the pandemic put a "full stop" to that, forcing the annual sale to be canceled in both 2020 and 2021.

That meant 60,000 books had piled up

When the sale finally resumed in November, book buyers welcomed a treasure trove of all kinds of volumes, from fiction to kids' books to some amazing collector volumes.

Yet no one could bring in new donations, and they had to be turned away because there was simply no more storage space.

However, this week the Museum announced donations are welcome again

The Museum's Development and Communication Director Stacey Carr-Poole tells us the organization is now taking donations again, in preparation for building up stock for the next Used Book Sale next November.

Donations will be accepted twice a month, on the 1st Saturday from 9 am to noon, and on the 3rd Tuesday from noon until 4 pm. Books are to be dropped off at the T-1 building, which is the white building next to Heritage Hall and not taken to the main museum.

While generally, the museum accepts most books, certain volumes are not accepted. The Museum says those include:

Textbooks

Computer or Finance books more than 3 years old

Magazines unless vintage or MT related

Medical/Diet Book over 3 years old

Travel books over 3 years old

Encyclopedias or Dictionaries

Bibles

Old library books

Books in poor condition or dirty

Carr-Poole says that the last prohibition is for books that are "defaced, cracked bindings, torn, water damaged, moldy, bad smelling, or covered in dirt or ick."