Westslope Forest Management

About forestry service, 59833, Florence, MT, US, Montana

Frenchtown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the Missoula metropolitan area. The population was 1,958 as of the 2020 census. == History == Early settlers gave the location a generic name based on the ethnicity or language of the original settlers, namely French Canadians. The settlement was cofounded around 1858 by two French Canadians moving inland with their Métis families to escape turmoil further west that followed the arrival of the American federal authorities. Jean-Baptiste Ducharme left Puget Sound during the Indian Wars (1855-1856) abandoning his land claim as his Muck Creek neighbors were arrested under martial law. Louis Brown (anglicized name) left the Colville Valley turmoil a few years later with his Pend d'Oreille wife and their daughters. Meanwhile the Kalispel Indian Community had moved upriver to a new locale accompanied by Jesuit priest Father Hoecken, who relocated the Saint-Ignatius mission northeast of the future Frenchtown. The St. Louis Catholic Church was built in 1864.