When cities choose an epithet, sobriquet, or nickname, they do so for a reason. It shows that their city means something and illustrate its most famous aspect. This is why Denver, standing at 5280 feet above sea level, was branded the Mile High City. Or why Seattle, one of the most green cities in America, is called the Emerald City. Unfortunately, here in Missoula, we have a far more generic title, Garden City. 

For starters, Garden City is hardly a unique name, in fact, there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to garden cities, boasting over 20 just in America. We don’t even make the list.  Most of these cities are even named Garden City. Yet Missoula has always been more unique than this. Our name itself is almost totally unique. With Missoula, Montana, being the only place with this name in the entire world according to Google Earth. Furthermore, our name is derived from the Salish “place of frozen water”, which is a pretty good epithet in itself.  Even our unofficial name, Zootown, which comes directly from our name, is almost entirely unique.

So, with so many truly unique things about our city, our forests, our mountains, our water, our architecture, and our history, why would we keep our current overused title?