Great Falls Montana History & Facts

Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of 22.9 square miles (59 km2) and is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County. The Great Falls MSA’s population stood at 84,414 in the 2020 census.

Downtown Great Falls
A cultural, commercial and financial center in the central part of the state, Great Falls is located just east of the Rocky Mountains and is bisected by the Missouri River. It is 180 miles (290 km) from the east entrance to Glacier National Park in northern Montana, and 264 miles (425 km) from Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming. A north–south federal highway, Interstate 15, serves the city.

Great Falls is named for a series of five waterfalls located on the Missouri River north and east of the city. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1805–1806 was forced to portage around a 10-mile (16 km) stretch of the river in order to bypass the falls; the company spent 31 days in the area, performing arduous labor to make the portage. Three of the waterfalls, known as Black Eagle, Rainbow and the Great Falls (or the Big Falls), are among the sites of five hydroelectric dams in the area, giving the city its moniker, “The Electric City”. Other nicknames for Great Falls include “The River City” and “Western Art Capital of the World”. The city is also home to two military installations: Malmstrom Air Force Base east of the city, which is the community’s largest employer; and the Montana Air National Guard to the west, adjacent to Great Falls International Airport.

Great Falls is a popular tourist destination in Montana, with one million overnight visitors annually, who spend an estimated $185 million while visiting, according to the Great Falls Montana Tourism group. Among Montana cities, Great Falls boasts the greatest number of museums, with 10, including the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center near Giant Springs and the C. M. Russell Museum and Original Log Cabin Studio on the city’s north side. Great Falls was the largest city in Montana from 1950 to 1970, when it was eclipsed by Billings in the 1970 census; Missoula assumed second place in 2000.

For much of prehistory, no permanent settlements existed at or near Great Falls, though Salish Indians seasonally hunted bison in the region. Around 1600, Piegan Blackfeet Indians, migrating west, entered the area, pushing the Salish back into the Rocky Mountains and claiming the area now occupied by Great Falls. The area remained territory of the Blackfeet until long after the United States claimed the region in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the newly purchased territory from 1804–1806. The expedition came upon the "Great Falls of the Missouri River" on June 13, 1805.

Famous Peoples From Great Falls Montana

Walter Breuning

Walter Breuning (September 21, 1896 – April 14, 2011) was an American supercentenarian who was the Oldest Living Man between July 18, 2009 and his death in 2011.

As of 2021, Breuning is the third-oldest verified American man ever, behind Danish-born Christian Mortensen and Mathew Beard, as well as the second-oldest man ever born in the United States. At the time of his death in 2011, he was the fourth-oldest verified man ever; as of 2021, he is the fifth-oldest.

Walter Breuning was born in Melrose, Minnesota. He was the son of John and Cora (née Morehouse) Breuning, and had two brothers and two sisters. In 1901, when he was 5, his family moved to De Smet, South Dakota, where he went to school for nine years until his family broke up in 1910. Breuning referred to this time as "the dark ages", as his family lived without electricity, water, or plumbing. Apart from his parents, who died at 50 and 46, longevity runs in Breuning's family. His paternal and maternal grandparents lived into their 90s and his siblings lived to ages 78, 85, 91, and 100. His only surviving family at the time of his death were 1 niece and 3 nephews (all in their 80s), plus great-nieces and great-nephews.

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