50th Anniversary Ride: Adventure Cycling Association

Celebrate 50 YEARS of the Adventure Cycling Association on March 1st and 2nd!

On Friday, March 1, 2024, the Adventure Cycling Association will be celebrating 50 years since Incorporating as ‘Bikecentennial76’ with the State of Montana on March 1, 1974!

To help celebrate, the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula will be offering FREE ADMISSION on Friday, March 1, and on Saturday March 2 from NOON to 5:00 pm. Be sure to visit the display on the second floor, “Missoula, Montana: The Bicycle Town.”

Arlen Hall, former Tours Director at ACA and a current tour leader for BIKEternity as well as ACA, will lead a ride to the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula on Saturday, March 2. Meet him at 12:00 NOON on the plaza in front of the Adventure Cycling Association office at 150 East Pine Street in downtown Missoula. After arriving at the museum, riders will have about an hour and a half to see the museum displays. Then we’ll celebrate with carrot cake! Arlen will lead the group back to the ACA office, arriving at around 2:30 pm.

BIKEternity’s Shawn Descareau and two of B76’s founders, June and Greg Siple, will be on hand to help host the refreshments.

Back in 1976, 4,100 cyclists inaugurated the 4,246.8-mile Trans-America Bicycle Trail thanks to Bikecentennial76, the predecessor of the Adventure Cycling Association. Most of the cyclists who visited Missoula that summer had their first look at our city during rest days. Groups had a choice of several bike shops for repairs, an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant, and Torrey’s Home Cooking and Food Store, which served as a popular dinner location. The BIKE INN overnight, in a dorm at the University of Montana, offered respite from the elements (sun, rain, snow, and bugs).

Riders could sign the Braxton Bike Shop visitors’ logbook, visit Bikecentennial’s world headquarters at 430 North Higgins in the old defunct Belmont Hotel, hit a laundromat, and even take in a movie. This kaleidoscopic stream of cyclists rolled through America’s heartland from Oregon to Virginia or vice versa in an ultimate demonstration of patriotism–to see America by bicycle during the USA’s bicentennial summer.

– June J. Siple
PHOTO: Bikecentennial76 Staff on roof at 430 North Higgins, winter of 1975-1976