Great Falls, MT : Travel Guide.gif)
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| Downtown
Great Falls, Montana |
Great
Falls is an interesting city. I first began
to like Great Falls during my first visit to the
city way back in the mid-1990’s. I was just passing
through, moving out to Idaho, when the local police pulled
me over for running a red light. Oops.
Happily,
the officer took a look at my Toyota pickup truck, my New
Mexico license
plates (I was moving from NM to ID the LONG WAY), asked
me if I saw the light (nope!), and then asked if I was
wanted
(NO!). He then sent me on my way one minute later, no warning
or ticket or anything.
It
is this kind of thing (nice experiences) that makes cities
memorable in good ways for many people. As such, when
I moved to Montana several years later in 1999 (to Whitefish),
I looked forward to returning to Great Falls, paying closer
attention
for those hidden red traffic lights, of course.
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| Overview
Picture of Great Falls, Montana |
For
those unfamiliar with Great Falls, it lies about
50 miles due east of the eastern edge of the Rocky
Mountains (which are faintly visible on the western horizon
if you make your way out of downtown). Great Falls itself
is named for the series of waterfalls that is found along
the Missouri
River, which runs right through the heart of
town. These waterfalls on the Missouri River, which constitute
a drop of over 500 vertical feet in just 10 miles, is what
gave Lewis & Clark such a hard time on their trip up
the Missouri River in July 1805, during their famed expedition.
Great
Falls sits near the geographical center of Montana, which
means that it is a long way to anyplace else once you
live town. A traveler going east out of Great Falls will
be cutting through the heart of the western prairie – with
few towns of any size to be found until you reach well in
North Dakota (like Bismarck or Minot!). These small towns
that are found scattered through out the prairie that lies
to the east of Great Falls are primarily agricultural towns – many
of which have shrinking populations. These towns and counties – always
thinly populated to being with – have been losing population
(in real terms) over the last 30 years, as residents pack
up and move to either larger cities in Montana or other cities
in the US.
Next Page
: Great Falls History
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