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    Great Falls
    Great Falls
    Great Falls
    Ebook166 pages58 minutes

    Great Falls

    By Don Peterson and The History Museum

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Before Meriwether Lewis saw the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1805, the area had been visited for centuries by plains bison and the Blackfeet Indians. The city’s founding father, Paris Gibson, learned of the falls from Lewis and Clark’s journals, and with financing from railroader James J. Hill, Gibson began building the city of Great Falls in 1884, capitalizing on its Missouri River location. After the railroad arrived, the first of five hydroelectric dams was built, along with smelters for silver and copper. The year 1909 saw the homestead boom and settlers by the thousands, while World War II’s construction boom supported large military facilities in the city. Great Falls’ good times lasted 90 years.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439625095
    Great Falls
    Author

    Don Peterson

    Great Falls historian Don Peterson, working with the archives of The History Museum and images from private collections, presents here a collection of vintage images illustrating the journey of Great Falls from a busy industrial and rail center to a modern suburb. This volume showcases not only the Missouri River, but Great Falls� evolution as a city, along with the sense of community that has always been a source of pride in this singular place.

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      Book preview

      Great Falls - Don Peterson

      her.

      INTRODUCTION

      Great Falls . . . just the words evoke a sense of power—waterpower. As the Missouri River follows its course for 3,000 miles from its beginnings at Three Forks in southwestern Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, there is only one Great Falls. It was called roar of stream by the Blackfoot Indians. Meriwether Lewis was the first white man to see it, hear it, and experience it. He arrived about noon on June 13, 1805, and by doing so confirmed he was on the main course of the Missouri. He hurried down the hill to take his position on top of some rocks about the center of the falls to gaze upon this sublimely grand spectacle. He was expecting only one great falls. The next day he would discover four more falls. The river here drops over 550 feet in just 21 miles between the Lewis and Clark campsites at White Bear Island and Lower Portage Camp, less than a mile below the mouth of Belt Creek. Lewis, Clark, and their Corps of Discovery would spend over a month here as they portaged their cottonwood dugouts, supplies, and equipment over 18 miles across the prairie. During this time, Lewis, Clark, and several of their men kept detailed daily journals. The birth of Great Falls’ written history can be traced back to these journals. Lewis and his men again visited the area a year later on their return journey to St. Louis. There would be other visitors in the next 50 years, but they left little, if any, record.

      In 1853, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, newly appointed governor of Washington Territory, would bring his railroad survey crew through the area on the way from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Puget Sound. He and his group would also keep journals. Most importantly, he brought with him two illustrators who would leave a pictorial history: John Mix Stanley and Gustavus Sohon. Sohon created the first artist’s rendering of the Great Falls that was done on site. It provided a wonderful image of the Great Falls of the Missouri as it looked before man came to change the face of the West forever. It would be another 30 years before a bankrupt St. Paul industrialist turned sheep rancher, struggling to provide for his family, visited the falls for the first time. Paris Gibson recognized the falls’ potential for providing industrial power. He knew of efforts to harness St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. He had a vision of what harnessing these falls could mean to the development and growth of a new city on the plains. He had the vision—but not the capital. However, in James J. Hill, he had a friend that did have the capital. Hill, a successful railroad developer, would come at Gibson’s invitation, and the two of them would work out a plan to take advantage of this wonderful natural resource.

      The city of Great Falls sprang from the very falls that gave the town its name. The Missouri River drops over 550 feet in elevation in just 21 miles as compared to the 400 feet the Mississippi River drops in 1,000 river miles between St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Five hydroelectric dams would be built here over the next 65 years. These five dams would be built within a 12-mile stretch of the river, underscoring just how dramatically the river drops here. It makes the area unique in the entire world when it comes to hydroelectric development. There were five natural waterfalls within those 12 miles, but they accounted for only a third of the drop. There is a 90-foot drop in elevation between two of the dams, and those dams are separated by less than 2 miles.

      The river simply runs downhill. Thus, the river provided the perfect source for reliable power. The electricity would light and power a new city, providing local industry, recreation, transportation, communication, and residents with a source of dependable power. It would also provide power to the bustling mining town of Butte, 150 miles to the southwest.

      Significant floods occurred in 1908, 1953, 1964, 1975, and 1997. These events had a profound impact on large segments of the area’s population as they adversely affected transportation, communication, property, recreation, and health. The river influences everyone’s daily lives.

      The evolution and development of the city has been directly influenced by the Sun and Missouri Rivers. They have forced residents to adapt to their presence and work around them. In the early days, before the first bridge was constructed, the rivers forced people to find a suitable place to cross. The earliest wagon ford (called rock bottom crossing by the Blackfeet) still exists immediately downstream from the railroad bridge near the Mitchell Swimming Pool and Great Falls Water Park. Bridge building commenced early on; first was a railroad bridge and next a wagon bridge that connected early Johnstown (later known as the West Side) with Great Falls. Then came a trolley bridge connecting Great Falls with Little Chicago and the smelter works on the north side of the Missouri. After that came three more bridges: ones on Tenth Street, First Avenue North, and much later, Tenth Avenue South. The Great Northern Railroad and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad also had to span the river. After the Milwaukee Railroad’s demise, its bridge was converted to a footbridge that is now part of the town’s extensive River’s Edge Trail system. The River’s Edge Trail is an excellent example of how successful a rails-to-trails program can be. The river also provides residents with many forms of enjoyable recreation, such as boating, waterskiing, canoeing, kayaking, jet skiing, fishing, floating, and bird-watching.

      Since the last ice

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