Christopher P. Higgins

Capt. Christopher Powers Higgins was an American Army captain and later businessman who with Frank Worden founded the Hellgate Trading Post and the nearby city of Missoula, Montana. He erected one of the first lumber and flouring mills on the Clark Fork River near present Downtown Missoula as well as many of Missoulas first buildings and establishments. He was one of the original county commissioners, member of first legislature of the Montana Territory, and incorporator of The Montana Historical Society. Higgins Avenue and bridge as well as the Higgins block in Downtown Missoula are named after him. He is buried in Missoula Cemetery.

Christopher P. Higgins was born in Ireland March 16, 1830. He immigrated to the United States in 1848, immediately moved to the western frontier and joined the army. In 1853 in joined newly designated Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens and Lieut. John Mullan as wagon master for the Stevens survey of the Bitterroot and Missoula Valleys, done for the planned construction of a railroad through to region to connect the Mississippi River with the Pacific Ocean. Governor Stevens, also acting as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, signed the Hellgate treaty to which Higgins was a witness with the Bitteroot Salish, Pend dOreille, and the Kootenai tribes that guaranteed passage.

Source: Wikipedia