Great Falls, Montana

Great Falls is known as the “Electric City” because of its numerous dams and power plants. Montana's third largest city is located on the Missouri River among the five falls that were both a magnificent spectacle and formidable barrier to early river travel.

This area held great significance for the Lewis and Clark expedition. The explorers were forced to spend nearly a month portaging around the falls in June 1805. Much of the Missouri River in this area remains as it was when Lewis and Clark first viewed it more than 190 years ago.

Until the 1880s, a majority of settlers bypassed the Great Falls area, heading to Helena or southwestern Montana from Fort Benton. Fort Benton was the stopping place for steamships heading up the Missouri River. It was not until an entrepreneur named Paris Gibson visited the area of the “Great Falls” that the realization existed that a town in that location might have possibilities.

Gibson came into the Great Falls area for the first time in 1880. He took one look at the Missouri and appreciated the potential power the river might supply. With financial help from a friend, James J. Hill (who later built the Great Northern Railroad), Gibson set about the task of building a city where the falls existed. With enthusiasm and never-ending optimism, Gibson planned every detail of his city. Six years after its beginning, Great Falls grew into a sizable transportation, commercial, and manufacturing center.

By 1887, there were rail connections, hotels, stores, lumberyards, flour mills, churches, newspapers, and a school. In 1888, Gibson broke ground for the silver smelter, which was located on the south bank of the Missouri River.

Great Falls continued its rapid growth. The first dam was built at Black Eagle Falls; a new iron works was started, and a copper smelter was built. The city quickly became a thriving industrial center, boasting a rich ethnic mix of workers. The community continued to thrive and prosper, and the population grew with every passing year. The city's prosperity tied in with national trends in railroading, manufacturing, agriculture, and the price of silver. After two decades of frantic building and expansion, the bottom fell out of the economy, and the nation was in for several years of high unemployment, declining prices, and a shrinking market for the products of farms and factories. During the 1890s, Great Falls found itself ideally situated to take advantage of opportunities offered by new technological developments.

[Page 286]Today, Great Falls is Montana's second largest city and the gateway to the lower Missouri River. Great Falls is also home to Malmstrom Air Force Base and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.