Piltzville, MT

Piltzville is a Missoula County census-designated place in the Clark Fork valley east of Missoula, just northwest of Bonner. It grew around the lumber mill in Bonner, and its name came from Billy Piltz, a Maine arrival who became the mill’s yard boss. The Piltz house, built in 1904, was the neighborhood’s third; Mrs. Piltz ran a small store on the first floor. During World War I, land west of the homes was cleared for dry-farm crops, though water had to be carried by hand. Mill housing, a household store, and a patchwork of gardens give Piltzville a clear working-neighborhood origin.

Today Piltzville remains residential, with Interstate 90 and Montana Secondary Highway 210 providing the main road connections and the Clark Fork forming the southwest edge. Bonner, Milltown, and Piltzville sit where the Big Blackfoot and Clark Fork valleys meet, a landscape shaped by lumber, railroads, and hydroelectric power. Artist Michael Cadieux, who grew up in Piltzville, is known for watercolor and oil paintings focused on environmental themes. Bonner Elementary and Missoula High School districts connect the neighborhood to nearby communities. The local scoop is a mill-town neighborhood that kept its name and homes after the industry that built it changed, with Missoula close by on the same river corridor.