4 Best Sights in Kalispell, Missoula, and Northwest Montana, Montana

A town highlight is the Conrad Mansion National Historic Site Museum, a 26-room Norman-style mansion that was the home of Charles E. Conrad, who made a fortune in shipping and freighting on the Missouri River and founded Kalispell. Docents lead entertaining and informative guided tours, including a variety of special theme tours offered throughout the year.

This Queen Anne–style commercial structure, a granite, copper-domed corner building with red polychromed brick, occupies a block in the heart of downtown. On the National Register of Historic Places, it's now home to a bank and several shops.

The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad was instrumental in opening up the West to settlers, and the arrival of the line in Missoula is a key point in the city's history. The depot, opened in 1901, is an example of the Renaissance Revival architecture that dominates the north end of downtown. Today, the depot houses private offices, but you can still look around inside, enjoy a picnic outside, and examine the Crossings, a sculpture of giant red enamel Xs representing railroad trestles over mountain ravines.

A Missoula landmark along the river's south shore, this 1910 passenger depot, with Romanesque windows, a Spanish-style roof, two towers, and Mission-style parapet walls, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's now the national headquarters of the Boone and Crockett Club, an organization founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt to establish conservation of wild habitats. Open to the public is a display of a world-record taxidermied elk, bighorn sheep, and other wildlife.