The Great Falls of Great Falls

Ok.. we got up this morning and I can tell you it rained all night. It is 9:30, very cold and still raining not a very hard rain but more of a drizzly cold rain. However since this is our last day here we have decided to go out and see all we can see.

As you may know or maybe not Great Falls is Montana's third largest city and of course named after the falls. There are I think 4 magnificent falls but you can only visit 3 of them. On River Drive there is the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. It is truly a must see if your ever in the area. They have 2 movies they alternate and show plus a ranger who is of the Blackfeet Tribe that demonstrates ways of survival for Indians of those days. There we learned that on May 14th 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on an amazing expedition across the Louisiana Territory looking for a route using the rivers from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The Great Falls Portage presented Lewis and Clark with one of the most challenging ordeals of the expedition. There travels on the Missouri River guided them through this area where the falls became a huge barrier for their river travel. On June 13, 1805, Lewis became the first white man to see the Great Falls of the Missouri River. They were impassable and all equipment and supplies, including canoes, had to be carried by hand or in makeshift wagons overland for approximately 18 miles in order to bypass the 21-mile stretch of falls and rapids. The following few pictures are from the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center. A bronze statue of the Lewis & Clark, then a demo of the portage uphill carrying supplies over the land, Outside of a Mandan Indian Earthen Lodge, Inside of the lodge.

These are pictures of the falls as they are today. They have built dams at each fall for energy and so it restricts the water flow. You can only imagine how grad they must have been in 1805. The top left is Black Eagle Falls, Top Right is Rainbow Falls, Bottom left is Great Falls and bottom right is Great Falls with the power plant.

Oh by the way did I mention the women who traveled with them... Sacajawea and her infant son traveled with Lewis & Clark and not only did she assist them on meetings with the Indians but she still manage to tend to her child. A good woman behind every GREAT man. On our way back home we saw a herd of Pronghorn Deer... they are very prominent in this area.. I always love wildlife shots so I had to add them for you to enjoy. Aren't their little white bottoms cute....