With Lewis and Clark at the Great Falls

September 14, 2010

When Lewis and Clark heard from the Mandans that there was a "great falls" ahead on the Missouri, it helped them to determine which of two forks in the river was the Missouri. However, the "great falls" turned out to be five "great falls" and it took nearly a month to portage around all of the falls, delaying their anticipated date of arrival at the Pacific Ocean.

Today dams along the Missouri around Great Falls, Montana have slowed and broadened the river, and one is even under water. The above falls is at Rainbow Dam, with Coltor Falls underwater in the reservoir behind it.

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center came about as a way to highlight the importance of the portage to the overall journey and was completed in 1998.

The photograph above depicts the portaging of a pirogue and fills an atrium from the lower level to the upper.

This is a fantastic Lewis and Clark center. We've seen several and this is the best by far. As you enter the main upper level area, a huge compass rose is inlaid in the floor in colorful stonework. The display begins on the lower level and gives a bit of information about the beginning of the journey with much more in-depth information about the events that happened in and around Great Falls, takes you to the Pacific and the building of Fort Clatsop, and then an overview of the journey back.

A multilevel theater has half-hourly programs, some about the journey as a whole, and some about specific topics, such as the fate of the live specimens sent back to President Jefferson (a prairie dog and four magpies). Many of these are done with props and costumes.

There are a lot of interactive displays, but all of them are interesting and sophisticated enough to grab the attention of adults as well as being easy enough to be manipulated and understood by children.

Fall is coming! This is a view of the bank and some foliage along the Missouri just downstream and across the river from the Interpretive Center. We saw bald eagles, American white pelicans, Franklins gulls, Canada geese, Brants cormorants, mallards while we were sitting in a pull-out to take this photo.