The Stevensville Historical Museum is a small, independent museum located in Stevensville, Montana, the first pioneer settlement in what is now the State of Montana.

The Stevensville Historical Museum’s goals are to research, collect, preserve and display the documents and artifacts regarding the unique history of the Stevensville community and the surrounding Bitterroot Valley.

St. Mary’s Mission was established in 1841 by Jesuit missionaries who were asked by the Salish Indians to come to the valley. John Owen purchased the Mission property in 1850 and established a trading post, Fort Owen.

The town of Stevensville began as a settlement just south of Fort Owen. Stevensville, Montana is home to some of the most fascinating history and is recognized as the first permanent pioneer settlement in what is now the state of Montana. Stevensville was the first county seat of Ravalli County and lays claim to many “firsts” in Montana: the first church, St. Mary’s Mission established in 1841, along with the first school in the Northwest. With the Mission came structured agriculture; Stevensville grew the first grain, ground the first flour, milled the first lumber, had the first planted fruit trees and practiced the first irrigation in Montana.