GREAT FALLS, the second largest city of Montana, U.S.A., Isom. N.E. of Helena, at an altitude of 3,3ooft., on the Missouri river, opposite the mouth of the Sun river, iom. above the falls of the Missouri (92ft. high) from which it derives its name; a port of entry and the county seat of Cascade county. It is on Federal highways 87 and 91, and is served by the Chicago, Mil waukee, St. Paul and Pacific and the Great Northern railways. Pop. 24,121 in 1920 (19.4% foreign-born white), and in 1930 was 28,822 by the Federal census. The area of the city is 8 sq.m. It has a fine system of parks, connected by 15m. of boulevards. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was $74,187,310. The region is rich in minerals of many kinds, including oil, and is the most productive agricultural and stock-raising area of the State. Great Falls is an important distributing, commercial, financial and manufacturing centre. It is the headquarters of the customs dis trict of Montana and Idaho, which in 1926 had exports valued at and imports amounting to $3,468,489. Bank clearings for 1927 were $55,408,891. Shipments of wool amount to 7,000, 000lb. annually. There is a Federal land office in the city. Of 348,000 potential h.p., 165,000 has been developed. The manu facturing industries include oil refineries, railroad shops, packing plants, and the electrolytic plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which performs the final step in the process begun at the reduction works in Anaconda on ores from the Montana and Idaho mines. The aggregate output of the factories within the city in 1927 was valued at $11,765,000.
Lewis and Clark visited this neighbourhood in 1805, and held here (it is claimed) the first 4th of July celebration west of Lake Superior. The city was founded in 1883, by Paris Gibson of St. Paul, Minn., and was incorporated in 1888. In 1890 the popu lation was 3,979; in 1900, 14,930. There are many points of scenic interest near by, including the Rainbow falls (48ft. high), the Belt mountains, and the Sun River valley. Within 4om. to the S.W. and the S.E. respectively are the Lewis and Clark and the Jefferson National forests. In the city is Giant spring, one of the largest in the world, which has a daily flow of 388,000,000 gal. of water, at a temperature of 52° F the year round.