Great Falls and An Artist's View of the West

Saturday, June 6 -- Great Falls, Montana
Today began with a "hardtack and local animal (ie squirrel, pronghorn, rabbit, etc) gravy" breakfast, that is biscuits and sausage gravy in honor of the food Lewis and Clark's men ate on a good deal of their trip.  Our hosts and tailenders are doing a terrific job of maintaining our focus on what life was like for the men and what they experienced in various areas on their trip.

The first place we visited today was Ryan Dam and falls - the Great Falls this city is named for and the first of five that Meriweather Lewis discovered when checking out what would be involved in getting around the falls to continue down the Missouri River.  He expected a short portage - maybe part of a day only to discover this was the beginning of an over 18 mile portage to get around not one but five falls and it took almost a month to get around them!!  They had eight dugout canoes made out of cotton wood tree trunks that were water logged and weighted up to 2000 pounds each along with all of their equipment to haul AND this is very hilly land.

Unfortunately today there is a dam at each of the falls so we don't see what Lewis saw but close, as the dams are set back so the original falls are complete in front of the dam. This is a picture up close and eliminating the dam to give a better sense of them.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on Ryan Island from which we could then also enjoy the above view as well as many others of the area. To get there we had to walk across this swaying bridge that can handle only 6 people at a time

We enjoyed our box lunches in this picnic shelter right next to the gorge (to the left of the picture) where the rapidly flowing water sped by after going over the 98 foot tall falls.  We could hear the falls which were just over the short rise behind the shelter.

We visited the overlooks for the other falls as well - all have a dam as well. This is the Black Eagle Falls.

And this is the Rainbow Falls

And the Crooked Falls

The other falls has disappeared as a result of all the dams and work done near them.

We then enjoyed some time at the Charles Russell Art Museum that has the largest collection of his Western art, personal objects and artifacts.  Western art by other artists is also on display.

Russell came west in the 1880's and began sketching Indians and cowboys that he encountered thus providing some of the first pictures of the west when Indians still had some freedom to roam. This is an example

His home and cabin workshop were also on the grounds and open for us to visit.  Although much of the furnishing of the house is not theirs, it does come from the time period when he lived there.  The workshop was set up as it might have looked.  It also included show cases filled with items he and his wife owned or had been given - gifts from many different Indians and other artists and friends he befriended.

The final place we visited was the fantastic Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center - probably the best museum we've been to on the subject of the Corps of the Discovery and their journey.  It literally took you from preparation for the journey to events following the journey with all kinds of dioramas, relics, pictures, and quotes from the journals. This display gave an example of just what they went through when portaging around the falls with their dugout canoes that weighted about 2000 pounds each and were filled with all of the goods they were taking with them.

 Hopefully I can finish this off tomorrow night