Missoula Walking Tour: Public Art, Murals, and Community Stories

Missoula has been building its public art scene for decades, and the results are everywhere you look. On this walking tour, you'll trace how railroad history, Indigenous heritage, and community-driven creativity shaped a city that treats its streets and alleys as galleries.

The tour starts outside the parking garage on Main Street, beside Cattin' Around, a ferrous cement alley cat that's survived football rivalries and become one of downtown's most beloved sculptures. From there, you'll spot the Studebaker Mural high on the ZACC building – a hyper-realistic airbrush portrait of mid-century Americana that most locals have never noticed. You'll step into a commissioned alley mural project where four artists from underserved communities responded to the theme of Feeling Welcome, with work rooted in Filipino, Indigenous, Romanian, and Shoshone-Bannock traditions.

Along the way, you'll stand before the Dorothy Dragon, a nearly 5,000-square-foot spray-paint mural blending Scandinavian and Chinese dragon mythology, and visit the Missoula Art Museum – once a Carnegie Library funded by a determined group of women in 1882. The tour ends at Radius Gallery on Higgins Avenue, voted Montana's Best Art Gallery two years running and known for its ceramics and contemporary Indigenous art.

On this 60-75 minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Examine the ZACC Alley murals, each representing a different artist's experience of belonging and identity
• Learn how The Crossings – four giant red X's – honors Missoula's railroad past in front of the 1901 Northern Pacific Depot
• Explore art installations inside the renovated Missoula Mercantile, including a 44-star flag found inside the walls
• Discover the Sounds of Commerce installation, an audio experiment that proved too chaotic even for Missoula
• Browse Alleyz, a lighted outdoor gallery showcasing rotating work from regional artists
• Visit the Missoula County Courthouse Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1921 with community-raised funds

Lace up your shoes – Missoula's art scene rewards those who look up, look down, and look inside.