After digging through archives and campus records, UM administrators shared what they believe is the beginning of UM's relationship with the community treasure and hotly debated chunk of ground most people associate with the UM golf course.
The story goes more or less like this:
Although Missoula's population was only about 12,000 at the time, Clapp set in motion a challenge to UM's alumni to raise $25,000 in order to purchase property for campus athletic fields and future buildings.
The response was both creative and effective.
In order to get around the cumbersome, bureaucratic state property acquisition process, a group of alumni and friends of the university formed the Alumni Challenge Athletic Field Corp., which later became the University Development Corporation.
City founding fathers, such as J.P. Higgins, were among the movers and shakers of this group, which snatched up tracts of land at the base of Mount Sentinel beginning in 1928.
As the years marched on, the group purchased more and more property that was, according to the property deeds, “for the use and benefit (convenience) of Montana State University at Missoula.”
Long before UM president Robert Johns ushered in the campus' new name - the University of Montana in 1965 - nearly 200 acres of property, 12 individual tracts, had been acquired and sold to UM for $10 apiece.
Today, that acreage is home to campus family housing, recreation fields, Dornblaser track, soccer fields, and an 9-hole golf course.
Two interesting pieces of information were discovered in the historical research, said Rosemary Keller, UM's associate vice president for administration and finance.
One, documents show that campus administrators began calling the property “South Campus” in 1947; and two, the deeds show there are no restrictions on how UM may use the property.
During the late 1930s and through the 1940s, the Missoula Country Club used the property as a golf course, even as the country club was developing a second site across the valley.
The Mount Sentinel property, however, was not a profitable course, and during the era, which began with the Great Depression followed by World War II, use of the golf course had drastically dwindled, said Kevin Krebsbach, associate director of UM's facility services.
As war veterans began returning home and taking advantage of the GI Bill, UM enrollment began to swell and additional student housing was needed. To meet that end, strip housing, which some believe came from the internment camp at Fort Missoula, was built on the northeast corner of the golf course.
“I think it is very helpful for us to go back to the original documents and look at what happened,” Keller said. “I know there is some belief among people in the community that there are restrictions on this land.”
The deeds state otherwise, she said, and require only that UM uses the land for its own benefit or convenience.
About 25 people attended the two-hour meeting, most of whom took notes and asked questions.
The concerns from the audience included: Will condominiums, retirement homes, and new buildings for the College of Technology be built on the property?
Keller explained the process is just at the beginning stages and that all ideas are on the table and will be considered by the committee.
A master plan for the property is mandated if UM is to keep its accreditation, Keller explained. All campuses must have plans for its physical campus and infrastructure, and UM's South Campus was identified in the last accreditation process as property that needs a master plan.
At the next public committee meeting, which will be held Monday, Feb. 5, Keller will talk about what a master plan is, what it achieves, why it is done and why it is necessary.
“I think it's great that a master plan is being worked out for this area,” said Jon Wilkins, Ward 4 Missoula City Councilman who was among the audience. “It's long overdue.”
June is the target month to have the plan hammered out, Keller said, but it's not a date set in stone.
“We will take the time it needs,” she said, “and the process will take the time it needs.”
Looking forward
Future development plans for the University of Montana's golf course and its open space near Dornblaser Field will be discussed at the next meeting of the South Campus Master Plan committee. The meeting will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at the Lewis and Clark Community Center.
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