To my knowledge, no one has reported any ghostly happenings in Stevensville's Fort Owen State Park. If there are any spirits hanging around there, they did not expect all the human activity this year. But, they'll get a break, starting November 1st. That's when the park will close for the winter. They'll re-open it in March, 2022.

The Fort Owen State Park is on the National Register of Historic Places. Catholic Father DeSmet came to the valley in 1841 and Major John Owen arrived in 1850 to build a trading post. What remains today was built by Owen back then and only one barrack is left. The whole 2-acre park underwent some needed upgrades this year, including an enlarged parking lot (with room enough for a motorhome or two). The barrack got a new roof and the whole park had some TLC applied by the State Parks folks of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Some furnishings and artifacts are on display along with the usual interpretive panels and tabletop displays.

Get our free mobile app

There were some interesting activities at the park this year, including an adobe-brick making day. Major Owen used some of the valley's mud and clay at construct the walls of material usually found in southwestern areas of the U.S. Fans of the fort found some suitable material and they got together this summer to try reproducing Owen's results.

And, because of the new parking lot, a few more people discovered the park. Still, many folks in the Bitterroot Valley have never visited. Vivaca Crowser reported that the park and parking lot will be closed after October 31, and if you need more information, contact the park staff at 406 273-4253. Updates are also available at the Fort Owen webpage.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

7 Items You'll Need To Survive A Missoula Winter

Don't get caught without these items during the winter in Missoula.

More From 94.9 KYSS FM