Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1887-1890, 1888-02-18
GREAT FALLS.

Three years ago J.. J. Hill and D. G..
Shepard of Saint Paul, accompanied by
colonel Broadwater and major Maginnis
of Helena, together with a few others,
camped on the present site of Great Falls.
They "camped" because there was no inn
at which they could take their ease, and,
in fact, no habitation of any kind in sight.
The party visited the several falls and the
Giant spring, inspected the coal measures
of Sand %coulee, and enjoyed immensely
the grand panorama Of nature presented
on every hand.
That visit may be said to have been the
prelude to the great railroad drama SO sue
cessfully played the past two seasons by
the Saint Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba
company-the pushing of their line west
ward from the Red river valley to the
Rocky mountains and into the hears of
Montana-and it was at the same time
the sin the beginning" Of Great Falls.
Prior to this time, it is true, Mr.. Gibson
had secured possession of some lands
here, and on the occasion of the import
ant visit mentioned was having his town
site surveyed, a proceeding set down by
the average north Montanian as visionary
in the extreme. But from that date Great
Falls was an established fact, and the
"father of the town. with the faith of
the prophets, set about to lay the founda-
ton of the future metropolis of Montana,
as confident from the beginning of its
coming greatness as he is today, when
the evidence of the fact is an open book
and may be read by all.
In the three years that have followed
Great Falls has made such rapid progress
that it is now q strong claimant for
third place among the Montana towns
and cities on the score Of population and
Importance, and within a few years it will
outrank n Of them. This is not said in
boast Or banter, but in the clear conviction
that it is true. The "logic of events"
and the strong natural location of the
town fully sustain this apparently extrav-
agant view.
Industries and commerce are the two
great factors in the growth and develop
ment of cities, and here they will join
forces to produce the best possible re-
suits.
Industrially, Great Falls will take the
lead in the northwest, and this is to be an
achievement of the immediate, and not
an indefinite, future. The establish
ment here of great reduction works,
the most extensive yet undertaken
in the United States, will mark
the beginning of the industrial era;
for the improvement, the utilization
of the tremendous water-power of the
Black Eagle falls will be an event coeval
with the completion of the smelling en-
terprise. This means cheap and unlim-
tied power for the propelling of machin-
cry; and with the best coal in the north
west in i~nexhaustible supply at our
doors; with minerals Of. all classes cor
venient and easy Of access; with railroads
centering here from the best mineral
fields of the territory, from the ranges
and from the agricultural areas; with
direct and favorable railroad connection
with the eastern seaboard, nothing is
lacking in the fulfllment of the manifest
destiny of the cataract city, that it shall
be the seat of industrial activity In the
Rocky mountain region! The Montana
Smelling Company, organized for the
purpose of building at this city the most
extensive reduction works in the United
States, will be promptly followed by
other important industrial enterprises,
until Great Falls will be the home of a
veritable army of workmen, andt the most
~populous city in the mountain region.
The coal and coke industry itself will be
a great one. The branch railroad from
this city to the mines will be completed
the present month, when a force of sew
eral hundred men will at once be put on
to take out coal for use on the Manitoba
and Montana Central railroads (no better