Great Falls, Montana

“ In 1858 he settled in Minneapolis, Minn., and built, with W. W. Eastman, the first flour mill and first woolen mill in Minneapolis. In 1882 he first examined the falls of the Missouri, and at once founded the City of Great Falls. In 1889 he was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of Montana. In 1891 he was elected state senator of Montana, and in 1901-03 he was United States Senator from Montana. He is now extensively engaged in real estate and farming in Great Falls, Mont. ”

“ The only exception to this is the piece from Great Falls to Helena, which had not been surfaced all the way. It is excellent railway construction, and it is necessary to emphasize this when we consider the rapidity with which it was built.
The company has built this road without land grant or subsidy of any kind. The Montana extension, from Minot, Dakota, to Great Falls, runs mostly through Indian and military reservations, permission to pass through being given by special Act of Congress, and the company buying 200 feet road-way. Little of it, therefore, is open to settlement. ”

“ Probably the Yaac River, a considerable mountain tributary of the Kootenai, in northwestern Montana. De Smet may, however, refer to some small stream that enters the main river near Kootenai Falls, some ten or twelve miles above the embouchment of the Yaac. David Thompson called the Kootenai, McGillivray River, in honor of the Hon. William McGillivray, one of the North West Company partners.—Ed.
[213] De Smet was an observant traveller. The mineral wealth of Flathead County, Montana (through which he was passing) , has not yet been developed ”

“ Sand Coulee and Stocket are coal mining towns of the Great Northern Railway.
I decided on my return to Great Falls, to make a trip to Boulder Hot Springs. At Boulder is the State Deaf and Dumb Institute, and is the center of a quartz mining section. A branch railroad extends to the Elkhorn mines. A short distance from here is the mining and smelter town of Basin, having the works of the Montana Ore Purchasing Company. The Hot Springs are four miles from the Boulder depot. ”

“ There is a Federal land office in the city. Great Falls lies in the midst of a region exceptionally rich in minerals—copper, gold, silver, lead, iron, gypsum, limestone, sapphires and bituminous coal being mined in the neighbourhood. Much grain is grown in the vicinity, and the city is an important shipping point for wool, live-stock and cereals. ”

“ The roar of the water, the foaming curtain of the descending torrent and the spray that floats some distance down—all combine to make a striking scene; while the sight of the river rolling away in the shuddering depths below has a strong fascination for all. Above the Grand Falls there are picturesque rapids where by walking over the great rocks—and over giant tree trunks that have lodged in immovable positions in their descent of the river from the lumbering region higher up—a good view of river and hilly banks may be obtained. ”

“ How the coming of the white man has changed the region about the falls! The game has disappeared; an important city, supported by the enormous water-power, is growing up; while the smoke rising from extensive plants for reducing the gold, silver, and copper ores mined in the Rocky Mountains floats out over the country.
Proceeding up the river, the party reached the Gate of the Mountains—a picturesque spot where the stream leaves the mountains through a narrow defile between high and jagged cliffs and enters upon its long course across the Great Plains (Fig. 68) . ”

“ Sometimes the white intricacies of dropping foam become opaque and creamy. And always there are the rainbows. If you come suddenly upon the Falls from above, a great double rainbow, very vivid, spanning the extent of spray from top to bottom, is the first thing you see. If you wander along the cliff opposite, a bow springs into being in the American Falls, accompanies you courteously on your walk, dwindles and dies as the mist ends, and awakens again as you reach the Canadian tumult. ”

“ By far the greatest disproportion in the Falls exists between the height and great width of the falling sheet. The water is most thick and massy at the Horseshoe Fall, which gives one the most striking and vivid idea of creative power. In fitting positions in the gulf, with good incidences of light, the Falls look like a mighty torrent pouring down from the clouds. At the time of my visit, the wind drove immense fields of ice out of Lake Erie, with floating trees and other driftwood, but I never saw any vestiges of these below the Falls. ”

“ At the Great Falls, in Whitley county, Kentucky, it drops precipitously 63 ft. Above the falls it is a mountain stream, of little volume in the dry months. It descends rapidly at its head to the highland bench below the mountains and traverses this to the falls, then flows in rapids (the Great Shoals) for some 10 m. through a fine gorge with cliffs 300-400 ft. high, and descends between bluffs of decreasing height and beauty into its lower level. Save in the mountains its gradient is slight, and below the falls, except for a number of small rapids, the 628 flow of the stream is equable. ”

“ The country is now taken up and dotted with claim shanties, and Great Falls is a town of over 1000 inhabitants, regularly laid out, with streets indeed extending far on to the prairie, a handsome and commodious hotel, several brick buildings, and new houses going up in all directions. ”

“ The rush was close on their heels because, on account of the lesser distance to travel, men had been more prone to take a chance even in the face of heavier odds upon the midway and lower claims of the creek. The stampede was driving down like a great wedge, thick at the head and petering out to single teams in the far upper reaches of Montana.
It was twenty-odd miles from Bassett’s claim on Montana to the junction of Indian River and the Yukon, and eighteen more to Dawson itself, a continuous run of approxmately forty miles. ”

“ They are poor; but we were able to purchase from them some wood to make a fire for supper, of which they have but little, and which they say they bring from the great falls. The hills in this neighbourhood are high and rugged, and a few scattered trees, either small pine or scrubby white oak, are occasionally seen on them. From the last rapids we also observed the conical mountain towards the southwest, which the Indians say is not far to the left of the great falls. ”

“ Thirty-nine miles farther down, we saw, on the North side of the River, two very large Springs, bursting midway from the lofty precipices, rushing down like rivers, and foaming along over the piles of rock. They looked, at a distance, like banks of snow resting on the cliffs. Seventeen miles below these Springs, are the Salmon Falls. These Falls are not perpendicular, except in one or two small shoots, on the North side. The great body of the water, runs down an inclination of not more than twenty-five feet in three hundred yards. ”

“ At evening, in the long Northern twilights, they would recount the traditions of the past. Some of the old tales of the Blackfeet, Piegans, and Chippewas, are as charming as those of La Fontaine.
The Rainbow Falls are far more beautiful than those of the Black Eagle. They are some six miles from the new city of Great Falls. A long stairway of two hundred or more steps conducts the tourist into their very mist-land of rocks and surges. Here one is almost deafened by the thunder. When the sun is shining, the air is glorious with rainbows, that haunt the mists like a poet's dream. ”

“ The Great Falls of the Missouri are the grandest in all North America, those of Niagara excepted, and though inferior to these in volume of water, depth of descent, and awful grandeur, yet they are far more diversified and beautiful. These Falls are within sixty geographical miles of the easternmost range of the Rocky Mountains. Here the river, two hundred and eighty yards, or eight hundred and forty feet wide, is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff on the left, one hundred feet high, and extending for a mile up the river ”

“ The American Falls do not inspire this feeling in the same way as the Canadian. It is because they are less in volume, and because the water does not fall so much into one place. By comparison their beauty is almost delicate and fragile. They are extraordinarily level, one long curtain of lacework and woven foam. Seen from opposite, when the sun is on them, they are blindingly white, and the clouds of spray show dark against them. With both Falls the color of the water is the ever-altering wonder. ”

“ Wing Dam of one of the Canadian Companies running out to the Edge of the Rapids. Then the American Falls, though still forming a cataract, will be but a ghost of their ancient magnificence; instead of the mighty sheet of emerald waters now spreading in silent majesty over the rock crest, a weakly, thin, white apron of waters carried forward by a slender impulse a tergo and the great cadence will have lost its glory. Electric searchlights in all the colors of the rainbow dancing up and over the falling waters and other factitious means of producing a spectacle will never compensate the loss. ”

“ He who sees them instantly forgets humanity. They are not very high, but they are overpowering. They are divided by an island into two parts, the Canadian and the American.
Half a mile or so above the Falls, on either side, the water of the great stream begins to run more swiftly and in confusion. It descends with ever-growing speed. It begins chattering and leaping, breaking into a thousand ripples, throwing up joyful fingers of spray. ”

“ The Grand Falls of Labrador, with their grim environment of time-worn, archaic rocks, are one of the scenic wonders of this Western world, and if nearer civilization, would be visited by thousands of travellers every year. They are nearly twice as high as Niagara, and are only inferior to that marvellous cataract in breadth and volume of water. ”

“ It is very interesting to note how widely different the rivers are upon the opposite sides of the Rocky Mountains. Those upon the east, with the exception of the Missouri at the Great Falls, are not marked by waterfalls after leaving the mountains. There are few cañons of importance. The streams generally flow in channels only slightly sunken below the general level of the Great Plains. The streams upon the west, on the contrary, are broken by rapids and waterfalls, and are generally buried in cañons so deep and precipitous that in places a man might die of thirst in sight of water. ”

“ Carriages will be found in abundance, manned by drivers more importunate than mellifluous; but if the tourist would see the Falls at leisure and from every point of view, he must be obdurate, and resolutely foot his way along the river’s precipitous bank.
First, arriving opposite the American Fall, we seat ourselves under a tree, and gaze with admiration on this magnificent water front, spread before us in one broad, straight sheet of milk-white foam, swooping ever downward with graceful undulations, until beaten into mist on the rocks below. ”

“ Who would miss the long climb up to the Yosemite Falls, where one from a perilous and yet protected vantage point just above the Falls sees that great volume of water launch itself for the awful plunge into the air, and so down into the Valley? Fortunately, there are sturdy mules and horses, sure-footed and plodding, for those who prefer riding to climbing. No one need miss the truly grand experience of the view from Glacier Point, where by staying over night at the hotel one may have both sunset and sunrise. What a world of mountains one looks out upon! ”

“ There are many other falls in the United States, which have been the subject of no extended descriptions, but which would excite admiration in any quarter of the world. In New York, the Great Falls of the Genesee, about half a mile below Rochester, are ninety feet perpendicular, and a few rods above is another of five feet, surmounted by a rapid. On the same river are several other falls. Trenton Falls are on West Canada Creek, a tributary of the Mohawk, fourteen miles north of Utica; they consist of several grand and beautiful cascades, some of them forty feet in descent. ”

“ Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether its great and numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expence to which it will require ages to render its inhabitants equal. The great obstacles begin at what are called the Great Falls, 90 miles above the mouth, below which are only five or six rapids, and these passable, with some difficulty, even at low water. From the falls to the mouth of Greenbriar is 100 miles, and thence to the lead mines 120. It is 280 yards wide at its mouth. ”

“ At a quarter of a league from the outlet, where we were, it grows narrower, and its channel is confined between two very high, steep, rocky banks, inducing the belief that the navigation would be very difficult quite up to the cataract. As to the river above the Falls, the current very often sucks into this gulf, from a great distance above, deer and stags, elk and roebucks, which, in attempting to swim the river, suffer themselves to be drawn so far down-stream that they are compelled to descend the Falls, and are overwhelmed in its frightful abyss. ”

“ This was the nucleus of the great city—the second in rank of the many wonderful cities of the United States. Fifty years ago the pioneers of the Badger and Prairie States were doing what the old-timers and pioneers of Montana are doing to-day, building towns and founding cities. In the Eastern pioneer States where a few straggling hamlets were first fashioned by the efforts of the early emigrants, there are thousands of towns and cities, where the unpretentious log cabins and town sites were no more inviting than those of the early settlers of Montana. ”