The Mission Valley

No marker stands at this register site any longer; the state still lists one here called The Mission Valley. The valley's settlement began with a lottery. In the summer of 1909 anyone who wanted a homestead on the reservation's surplus lands had to register in person at Kalispell or Missoula, and boat lines on Flathead Lake did a brisk trade carrying hopefuls out to look at land they had not yet won. About 81,000 applied. Christina Donlan of Missoula was chosen to draw the Flathead envelopes at Coeur d'Alene that August, and entry began on April 1, 1910.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Ignatius Mission — 3.1 mi
  A brick church painted wall to ceiling by the mission cook, beside the boarding schools the mission ran for Native children.
• CSKT Bison Range — 6.7 mi
  The herd the tribes saved, the government forced them to sell, and the range they finally got back.
• Ninemile Remount Depot — 19 mi
  The Forest Service's mule ranch, built because the fires of 1929 ran out of packers.

More markers nearby

• The Flathead Indian Reservation — 1.9 mi
• Fort Connah — 8.5 mi
• The Salish and Pend d'Oreille People and the Jocko Valley — 12 mi
• The Mission Mountain Wilderness — 14 mi