Great Falls (Missouri River)
Great Falls of the Missouri River | |
---|---|
Location | Cascade County, Montana, U.S. |
Coordinates | 47°34′12″N 111°07′23″W / 47.57000°N 111.12306°W |
Total height | 187 feet (57 m) |
Number of drops | 5 |
Longest drop | 87 feet (27 m) |
Watercourse | Missouri River |
Average flow rate | 7,539 cu ft/s (213.5 m3/s)[1] |
The Great Falls of the Missouri River are a series of waterfalls on the upper Missouri River in north-central Montana in the United States. From upstream to downstream, the five falls along a 10-mile (16 km) segment of the river[2] are:
- Black Eagle Falls (26 feet 5 inches or 8.05 meters)[2]
- Colter Falls (6 feet 7 inches or 2.01 meters)[2]
- Rainbow Falls (44 feet 6 inches or 13.56 meters)[2]
- Crooked Falls, also known as Horseshoe Falls (19 feet or 5.79 m)[2]
- Big Falls, also known as the Great Falls, (87 feet or 26.52 m)[2]
The Missouri River drops a total of 612 feet (187 m) from the first of the falls to the last, which includes a combined 187 feet (57 m) of vertical plunges and 425 feet (130 m) of riverbed descent.[3] The Great Falls have been described as "spectacular",[4] one of the "scenic wonders of America",[5] and "a major geographic discovery".[6] When the Lewis and Clark Expedition became the first white men to see the falls in 1805, Meriwether Lewis said they were the grandest sight he had beheld thus far in the journey.[7]
The Great Falls of the Missouri River were depicted on the territorial seal of the Montana Territory, and later on the state seal of Montana in 1893.[8]
Names of the falls
The Mandan Indians knew of cataracts and called them by a descriptive (but not formal) name: Minni-Soze-Tanka-Kun-Ya,[9] or "the great falls."[10][11] The South Piegan Blackfeet, however, had a formal name for Rainbow Falls and called it "Napa's Snarling."[12][13] No record exists of a Native American name for any of the other four waterfalls.
Four of the five waterfalls were given names in 1805 by American explorers
Geological history
The Missouri River lies atop the
The Great Falls themselves formed on a fall line unconformity in the Great Falls Tectonic Zone.[26] The Missouri River settled into a bedrock canyon which lay beneath the clay laid down by Glacial Lake Great Falls.[27][28] The course of the Missouri in and around the Great Falls has changed very little since then, in comparison to lower regions of the river on the ground moraine that forms much of the upper Great Plains.[29]
The Great Falls of the Missouri River formed because the Missouri is flowing over and through the Kootenai Formation, a mostly nonmarine sandstone laid down by rivers, glaciers, and lakes in the past.[27][30] Some of the Kootenai Formation is marine, however, laid down by shallow seas.[31] The river is eating away at the softer nonmarine sandstone, with the harder rock forming the falls themselves. Until relatively recently (in geologic time) the Missouri River in the area had a much wider channel,[32] but it has now settled into its current course, where it will continue to cut more deeply into the sandstone.
Discovery
Early inhabitants
The first human beings to see the Great Falls were
Although the discovery of the Great Falls by Native Americans is not recorded, the South Piegan Blackfeet were well-acquainted with the Great Falls by the late 18th century,[12] and news of the cataracts had spread among native peoples as far east as central North Dakota.[9]
Lewis and Clark
The United States purchased the area around the Great Falls of the Missouri from France (which claimed the area despite Native American habitation) in 1803, as part of the
The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Great Falls on June 13, 1805.[37] Meriwether Lewis was the first White person to see the falls.[7] Lewis described the encounter in a now-famous passage of his expedition diary:[38]
- ...my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arrise above the plain like a column of smoke which would frequently dispear again in an instant caused I presume by the wind which blew pretty hard from the S. W. I did not however loose my direction to this point which soon began to make a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri. ... I hurryed down the hill which was about 200 feet high and difficult of access, to gaze on this sublimely grand spectacle. ... immediately at the cascade the river is about 300 yds. wide; about ninety or a hundred yards of this next the Lard. bluff is a smooth even sheet of water falling over a precipice of at least eighty feet, the remaining part of about 200 yards on my right formes the grandest sight I ever beheld, the height of the fall is the same of the other but the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in its passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the height of fifteen or twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them. in short the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present a sheet of the whitest beaten froath for 200 yards in length and about 80 feet perpendicular. the water after descending strikes against the butment before mentioned or that on which I stand and seems to reverberate and being met by the more impetuous courant they role and swell into half formed billows of great height which rise and again disappear in an instant. this butment of rock defends a handsom little bottom of about three acres which is diversified and agreeably shaded with some cottonwood trees; in the lower extremity of the bottom there is a very thick grove of the same kind of trees which are small, in this wood there are several Indian lodges formed of sticks. ... from the reflection of the sun on the spray or mist which arrises from these falls there is a beatifull rainbow produced which adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery. after wrighting this imperfect discription I again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the scene that I determined to draw my pen across it and begin agin, but then reflected that I could not perhaps succeed better than pening the first impressions of the mind; I wished for the pencil of Salvator Rosa or the pen of Thompson, that I might be enabled to give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnificent and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless and vain. I most sincerely regretted that I had not brought a crimee obscura with me by the assistance of which even I could have hoped to have done better but alas this was also out of my reach; I therefore with the assistance of my pen only indeavoured to traces some of the stronger features of this seen by the assistance of which and my recollection aided by some able pencil I hope still to give to the world some faint idea of an object which at this moment fills me with such pleasure and astonishment, and which of its kind I will venture to ascert is second to but one in the known world. ...[39]
The falls which Lewis had seen were the lowest of the five falls, the
- I arrived at another cataract of 26 feet. ... below this fall at a little distance a beatifull little Island well timbered is situated about the middle of the river. in this Island on a Cottonwood tree an Eagle has placed her nest; a more inaccessible spot I believe she could not have found; for neither man nor beast dare pass those gulphs which separate her little domain from the shores. the water is also broken in such manner as it descends over this pitch that the mist or sprey rises to a considerable height. this fall is certainly much the greatest I ever behald except those two which I have mentioned below. it is incomparably a greater cataract and a more noble interesting object than the celebrated falls of Potomac or Soolkiln &c.[41]
Mounting a hill near Black Eagle Falls (probably where the town of Black Eagle is today), Lewis saw that the cataracts ended and that another large river joined the Missouri about two and a half miles further upstream.[37] Although it was very late in the afternoon, Lewis rushed forward to see this river and was attacked by a grizzly bear.[37] He ran more than 80 yards and launched himself into the Missouri River, and luckily the bear did not follow.[2][37] The Lewis and Clark Expedition was forced to portage around the Great Falls, an arduous task that took nearly a month.[37]
The Lewis and Clark Expedition made a number of discoveries near the Great Falls. On June 13, Silas Goodrich
On June 18, while reconnoitering the series of falls on the south side of the Missouri River with a group of five others, William Clark discovered Giant Springs, which he correctly judged to be the largest spring in the world.[26][48][49] He was the first white person to see the springs, and the first white person to see the falls from the south side of the Missouri.[2]
Meriwether Lewis revisited the Great Falls on July 11, 1806, as the Corps of Discovery returned east. Lewis and nine men stopped at the Great Falls with the intention of exploring the Marias River and discovering its source. But during the night, Indians stole half the party's 17 horses, forcing three of the men to stay behind.[48]
Settlement of the area
Following the return passage of Lewis and Clark in 1805/06 there is no record of any white man visiting the Great Falls of the Missouri until explorer and
The first permanent settlement near the Great Falls was Fort Benton, established in 1846 about 40 miles (64 km) downstream from the Great Falls.[53] The Great Falls marked the limit of the navigable section of the Missouri River,[54] and the first steamboat arrived at the falls in 1859.[53] In 1860, the Mullan Road linked Fort Benton with Fort Walla Walla in the Washington Territory.[12][55]
Politically, the Great Falls of the Missouri River passed through numerous hands in the 19th century. It was part of the unincorporated
The Great Falls of the Missouri River became the site of a permanent settlement in 1883.
The city of Great Falls, Montana, derives its name from the waterfalls.[63] The small town of Black Eagle, Montana, derives its name from Black Eagle Falls,[12] and Cascade County (in which both are located) is named for the cataracts and rapids which make up the falls.[64]
Dams
Only one of the waterfalls that comprise the Great Falls of the Missouri River, Crooked Falls, exists in its natural state today. Dams built on the falls beginning in the 1880s have significantly altered and even submerged the five waterfalls. Black Eagle Dam was built in 1890, and half of Black Eagle Falls are now submerged in the reservoir behind the dam.[12] This structure was the first hydroelectric dam built in the state.[65]
Rainbow Falls was dammed in 1910 when Rainbow Dam was built.[12][48][65] The reservoir behind the dam submerged Colter Falls.[12][48]
Volta Dam was built on top of the Great Falls in 1915, and later renamed Ryan Dam in 1940 in honor of
Historic district and interpretive centers
The Great Falls Portage, a National Historic Landmark District designated in 1966, commemorates the route by which Lewis and Clark bypassed the falls. The landmarked areas, including the expedition camps at either end of the portage, are located well above and below the series falls.[67][68] The Great Falls are also part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, established by Congress in 1978.[69]
The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center was built in 1998 on a cliff overlooking the Missouri River near Crooked Falls. It provides an extensive look into Lewis and Clark's discovery of the Great Falls and their portage around them, as well as exhibits on native peoples of the area.[70]
In 1989, the City of Great Falls, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and other public and private bodies established the River's Edge Trail, a 30-mile (48 km) series of paved and unpaved trails that follow the Great Falls as well as the Lewis and Clark Expedition portage route (along with other scenic and historic area of the City of Great Falls and town of Black Eagle).[69][71]
In art
The first known drawing of the Great Falls was entered by Meriwether Lewis in his diary.[2] In 1807, Lewis commissioned the Irish engraver John James Barrelet to make drawings of the Great Falls.[2] After Lewis's death in 1810, William Clark visited his home and found the drawings, but they have since disappeared.[2]
The Great Falls have been depicted in well-known paintings over the years. The waterfalls may be seen in the background of
The first known photograph of the Great Falls was taken by noted Western photographer James D. Hutton about 1859 or 1860.[74]
References
- ^ Mineral and Water Resources of Montana. Stermitz, Frank; Hanly, T. F.; and Lane, C. W. Special Publication No. 28. Helena, Mont.: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, May 1963.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-6434-8
- ^ "Great Falls of the Missouri River." Encyclopedia Americana. New York: Americana Corp., 1954.
- ISBN 1-56044-827-X
- ^ Montana Department of Agriculture. The Resources and Opportunities of Montana. Helena, Mont.: Montana Department of Agriculture, 1912.
- ISBN 0-8032-7618-4
- ^ ISBN 1-932961-41-0
- ISBN 0-313-31534-5
- ^ ISBN 1-56044-189-5
- ^ ISBN 1-883844-03-7[page needed]
- ISBN 1-932098-59-3[page needed]
- ^ ISBN 1-60354-025-3[page needed]
- ISBN 0-8032-8018-1(orig. pub. 1930)
- ^ Judson, Katharine Berry. Montana: "The Land of Shining Mountains". 5th ed. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1909.[page needed]
- ^ Lewis and Clark had been told by the Mandan Indians that there were "great falls" on the Missouri River. Clark adopted this name for the largest set of waterfalls the expedition discovered. See: Howard, Lewis & Clark – Exploration of Central Montana, 2000.
- ^ Vaughn, Robert. Then and Now, or, Thirty-Six Years in the Rockies: Personal Reminiscences of Some of the First Pioneers of the State of Montana, Indians and Indian Wars, and the Past and Present of the Rocky Mountain Country: 1864–1900. Chicago: Tribune Printing Company, 1900. [page needed]
- ^ Strahorn, Carrie Adell. Fifteen Thousand Miles By Stage: A Woman's Unique Experience During Thirty Years of Path Finding and Pioneering From the Missouri to the Pacific and From Alaska to Mexico. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1911. [page needed]
- ISBN 0-8137-2377-9
- ^ ISBN 1-56037-037-8
- ISBN 1-59880-014-0
- ^ a b Montagne J.L. "Quaternary System, Wisconsin Glaciation." Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region. Denver: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, 1972.
- ^ Hill, Christopher L., and Valppu, Seppo H. "Geomorphic Relationships and Paleoenvironmental Context of Glaciers, Fluvial Deposits, and Glacial Lake Great Falls, Montana." Current Research in the Pleistocene. 14 (1997); Hill, Christopher L. "Pleistocene Lakes Along the Southwest Margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet." Current Research in the Pleistocene. 17 (2000); Hill, Christopher L., and Feathers, James K. "Glacial Lake Great Falls and the Late-Wisconsin-Episode Laurentide Ice Margin." Current Research in the Pleistocene. 19 (2002); Reynolds, Mitchell W. and Brandt, Theodore R. Geologic Map of the Canyon Ferry Dam 30' x 60' Quadrangle, West-Central Montana: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 2860, scale 1:100,000. Scientific Investigations Map 2860. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geologic Survey, 2005.
- ^ a b c "Luminescence Dating of Glacial Lake Great Falls, Montana, U.S.A." Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine Feathers, James K., and Hill, Christopher L. XVI International Quaternary Association Congress. Stratigraphy and Geochronology Session. International Quaternary Association, Reno, 2003.
- ISBN 0-8032-4787-7
- ISBN 0-405-02659-5
- ^ ISBN 0-19-516243-9
- ^ a b Fisher, Cassius A. "Geology of the Great Falls Coal Field, Montana." Bulletin - United States Geological Survey. Issue 356. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1909.
- ^ Newberry, J. S. "Surface Geology of the Country Bordering the Northern Pacific Railroad." American Journal of Science. July–December 1885.
- ISBN 0-7591-0078-0
- ^ DeCelles, Peter G. "Sedimentation in a Tectonically Partitioned, Nonmarine Foreland Basin: The Lower Cretaceous Kootenai Formation, Southwestern Montana." Geological Society of America Bulletin. 97:8 (August 1986).
- ^ Haney, M. and Schwartz, R. K. Estuarine Member of the Lower Cretaceous Kootenai Formation, Missouri River Gorge, Great Falls, MT. Paper No. 38-15. Northeastern Section, 38th Annual Meeting. Geological Society of America. March 27–29, 2003; Farshori, M. Zahoor, and Hopkins, John C. "Sedimentology and Petroleum Geology of Fluvial and Shoreline Deposits of the Lower Cretaceous Sunburst Sandstone Member, Mannville Group, Southern Alberta." Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology. 37:4 (December 1989).
- ^ Geologic Map of the Great Falls North 30' x 60' Quadrangle, Central Montana. Vuke, Susan M.; Colton, Roger B.; and Fullerton, David S. Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Open File 459. Helena, Mont.: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, 2002.
- ISBN 0-8020-4817-X
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- ^ ISBN 0-295-97129-0
- ^ ISBN 0-471-26738-4
- ^ ISBN 0-06-015982-0
- ^ a b Spelling and grammar are as Meriwether Lewis made them, and remain uncorrected here.
- ISBN 1-4191-6799-5pp. 129–132.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-2950-X
- ISBN 1-4191-6799-5 pp. 134–135. Punctuation and spelling as given here. See Google Books preview.
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- ISBN 0-8032-1043-4
- ISBN 0-8032-1826-5
- ^ ISBN 0-252-06987-0
- ISBN 0-8050-6726-4; Miller, James Knox Polk. The Road to Virginia City: The Diary of James Knox Polk Miller. Stillwater, Okla.: University of Oklahoma, 1960.
- ISBN 0-8032-8019-X
- ISBN 0-8032-8042-4
- ^ Lamar, Howard Roberts. Dakota Territory, 1861–1889: A Study of Frontier Politics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1956; History of Southeastern Dakota. Sioux City, Iowa: Western Publishing Company, 1881.
- ^ Rees, John E. Idaho Chronology, Nomenclature, Bibliography. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Co., 1918.
- ^ a b c d e f Roeder, Richard B. "Paris Gibson and the Building of Great Falls." Montana: Magazine of Western History. 42:4 (Autumn 1992).
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-4787-7
- ^ ISBN 0-8061-2860-7
- ^ ISBN 0-87351-261-8
- ISBN 0-7627-4423-5
- ^ The Montana Almanac. Bozeman, Mont.: Montana State University, 1958.
- ^ a b Hebgen, Max. "Hydroelectric Development in Montana." Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. 1914.
- ^ National Park Service. U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. Vol. 13. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1963; Johnson, Carrie. "Electrical Power, Copper, and John D. Ryan." Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Autumn 1988.
- ^ "Great Falls Portage". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
- ^ Blanche Higgins Schroer; Roy E. Appleman; Nancy Witherell (August 1984). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Great Falls Portage National Historic Landmark" (pdf). National Park Service.
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(help) and Accompanying 17 photos, undated. (1.92 MB) - ^ ISBN 0-7627-4437-5
- ISBN 0-595-29852-4
- ISBN 1-86450-327-0
- ISBN 0-8061-3607-3
- ISBN 0-8032-6419-4; Ainsworth, Ed. The Cowboy in Art. Tulsa: World Publishing Co., 1968.
- ISBN 0-8047-3883-1
External links
- Full online text of the Lewis and Clark journals
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail – United States National Park Service
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center in Great Falls, Montana
- River's Edge Trail in Great Falls, Montana
- Giant Springs State Park: State of Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks
- "Great Falls of the Missouri." Geologic Road Signs – Lewis & Clark Trail – Montana. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Montana-Western