The University of Montana was founded in 1893 and its presence shapes everything about Missoula — the bookshops, the coffee houses, the breweries, the independent restaurants, and the culture of the place. The campus sits at the foot of Mount Sentinel on the south side of the Clark Fork, with the river running along its northern edge. The oldest buildings are in a Craftsman-influenced brick style that has worn well.
The university's creative writing program — founded by Richard Hugo, who also influenced a generation of Pacific Northwest writers — has been consistently ranked among the best in the United States. Norman Maclean studied here before writing A River Runs Through It. The Mansfield Library is open to the public and worth visiting for its Western history collections.
The campus is pleasant to walk through and connects naturally to the riverfront trail along the Clark Fork. The University Center has a bookstore and a few cafés. Football games at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in autumn are a local institution.