The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-01-05
An Admirable Article from the Fen
Of Herbert Haywood in Frank
Leslie's Illustrated
A Description of His Visit to the Many
Attractive Points in the Nicin-
ity of This City.

nearly 100 feet in height. No sign mol
sound of this marvel Of waters is per
seived within even a mile Of the canyon
Starting from the town of Great Falls
the nearest point on the Great Northern
railroad. one must proceed by carriage
or horseback twelve miles over the roll
ing plateaus. A slightly travelled road
leads through pasture lands. Heavy
wooden gates have to be opened and
closed, and though following directions
strictly one in~voluntarily exclaims, "Can
this be the way to the Great falls?'
After travelling many miles, as it seems,
without hearing q sound OF the falls the
read turns to the right and begins a
slight descent, and faint suggestions of
AN abyss beyond come n view. Then
the blind roadway disappears altogether
In a sheep ranch Enclosure surrounded
by sheds and stables and ~corrals, and a
cabin home.
An opening appears in the fence on
the lower side, and again the road is
seen leading down the precipice into the
canyon below the falls. The sound OF
the cataract is now heard, and a turn of
Ine TOdu DTlDsb W slRhtd paw u u
foaming flood. But the full sweep OF
the falls cannot be seen until one is al
most within the spray. A wall of rock
in the middle of the chasm shuts off the
view. Climbing around this, what a
scene is confronted! Such a confusion
of falling. foaming waters and clouds of
mist! There is a mass of water one
hundred feet across, plunging down
perpendicularly for nearly as many feet.
70 the right are rock terra es and Lodges
and channels, over which the water from
the broad stream above fall and leap and
dash in furious descent. Here seems to
be represented, as in the tumbling
waters at Lodore, though on a grander
scale, every form in which falling waters
can be magniicently displayed. The
spectacle completely fills the canyon be.
tween the closing walls, a distance OF
five hundred feet.
Up rise the cliffs nearly a thousand
feet on either side and shut out the rays
OF the sun from these depths, save for a
few short hours when the days are long.
Down in this canyon. filled with never
ending thunder and rising spray, the ar
is dark and the chill of evening always
prevails.
1t is the Niagara Of the west, yet but a
few hundred, possibly a few thousand
people have seen it, and only a few more
have heard of it.
1t is easy to account for its present
sbecurity. 1t is in q region unfrequented
by tourists. Until five years ago, when
the Great Northern railroad penetrated
'His part OF Montana, it was practically
.ccessible, abandoned to cattle anu
ep ranches. In the p%opulous east or
he Pacific coast. where the tides OF
eel sweep, it would long since become
GUS.
blowing along the edge of the pla-
for six miles up stream, one comes
iew of another fall, not so grand bu'
beautiful-Rainbow falls. Thest
fifty feet high, formed by an even
extending from one side OF the
. to the other, four hundred feet.
the canyon is not so deep as at the
falls, and on the right side a long
yay of two hundred or more steps
down below the falls into a mist
of rocks and surges. AS the
> through the clouds OF spray the
glorious with rainbows, which give
anne to the falls. A short distance
is a jagged fall OF about equal
t, called Crooked falls. Nov does
Xhaust the series of cataracts. A
miles farther up stream. below the
flGreat Falls, are the Black Eagle
They consist of raging rapids over
essive shelves of rock. Though
ked with a dam and having power
fuses on either side, the scene is Que
grandeur. The enormous machinery
0 the north hank that runs one of The
Igest smelters in Montana. and the
ectric plant on the south side that 81
les motive power and lights the city,
e but playtb'ngs for the side currents
this mighty stream.
The foaming mass of water is a fasrl.
ing sight from the high banks above
ere an observation pavilion has bee'
1t. Far below, hanging arily over the
ing flood, is a suspension font-bridge
(which the workmen of the smelter
!. Looking up the river are two
er bridges that in the distance seem
cobwebs.
he point of historic and romantic in
st is the island in the midst Of the
.rges. On it are stunted trees and the
rostrate trunk of an old oak. In 1905.
when Lewis and> Clark passed up the
was a green tree. They noticed that the
OlouCuCb ppA0ouluk Oub oVoi SuO ioSuuiuk
water held the nest of h black eagle, and
they named the falls accordingly the
Black Eagle falls.
1t is said that this eagles nest was
long known and superstitiously re-
garded by the indiana. Here came the
warriors Of many tribes who desired to
be chiefs, and they gathered plumes
from this nest as a charm and augury Of
success in battle. When the present city
OF Great Falls was laid out, seven years
ago, the tree, though fallen, still har-
bored in it's dead branches a brood of
eagles. The nest has since been broken
up and carried away.
One must descend the right bank of
the river q short way to see one of the
wonders of the world.
"Close beside the great Missouri,
Ere IL takes It second leap
Is o spring of sparkling water.
Like a river broad and deep"
It is the Giant spring. 1t is an under
ground river, which raises in q boiling
pool and flows, q raging torrent, over the
rocks down into the murky waters OF
the Missouri. The emerald busin is
fringed with water-cresses. As one
looks intently into the unknown depths