About Great Falls

Aerial view of Great Falls and the Missouri River

Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County. Great Falls takes its name from the series of five waterfalls in close proximity along the upper Missouri River basin that the Lewis and Clark Expedition had to portage around over a ten mile stretch; the effort required 31 days of arduous labor during the westward leg of their 1805-06 exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and to the Pacific Northwest Coast of the Oregon Country. Each falls sports a hydroelectric dam today. Two undeveloped parts of their portage route are included within the Great Falls Portage, a National Historic Landmark.

The city is home to the C. M. Russell Museum Complex, the University of Great Falls, Montana State University Great Falls - COT, Giant Springs, the Roe River (claimed to be the world's shortest river), the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, the Great Falls Voyagers minor league baseball (formerly known as the Great Falls White Sox and before that as the Dodgers and Giants respectively) team, and Malmstrom Air Force Base. The local newspaper is the Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls is known as the "Electric City" due to the five hydroelectric dams that are in the nearby vicinity along the Missouri River.

Great Falls was the largest city in Montana from 1950 to 1970 when Billings surpassed Great Falls to become Montana's largest City. Great Falls remained the second largest city in Montana until 2000. In 2000 with the zoning of some surrounding neighborhoods Missoula became the second largest city in Montana by a margin of 363 people. Great Falls remains the third largest City in the state