Great Falls, a city of approximately 50,000, was first recognized as a community in 1884. It lies along the Missouri River at a point where the river falls 400 feet in less than 10 miles. The resulting series of waterfalls and rapids created a barrier for explorers going up river. The Lewis and Clark expedition was forced to pause at this spot as they portaged around the falls. The expedition discovered Giant Springs, one of the world's largest artesian springs. These springs feed the Roe, the shortest river in the U.S.
Paris Gibson, who arrived in Montana in 1879 intending to raise sheep, founded the city. After reading the Lewis and Clark journals, he traveled to see the falls of the Missouri and there recognized the potential for hydropower to fuel an industrial city.
Gibson enlisted the help of his good friend James J. Hill, the railroad baron, to bring railroad service to the area, an act that sealed the success of the town. With the construction of the Boston and Montana smelter in 1879, Great Falls became important to the metals industry, a role that was sealed with the construction of the Anaconda Copper Company Big Stack in 1910.
Great Falls is the home of the C.M. Russell Museum and Studio. In the early 1900's the city became the home of this famous western artist, who completed most of his paintings and sculptures in the modest log cabin studio that is part of the museum.
In 1942, the Army Air Force's Seventh Ferrying Group was based in Great Falls. Under the Lend Lease Act, this group ferried over 7,000 aircraft from Great Falls to Fairbanks, Alaska, where pilots from the USSR flew the planes loaded with munitions across the Bering Strait to the Russian Front. The base, named Malmstrom in 1955, became an Air Force base and missile outpost. The official repository for the 7th Ferrying Group Collection is the Cascade County Historical Society, located in Great Falls.
For further information about Great Falls, check our Ranch Store for the Cascade County Album: Our History in Images.