Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-08-07
TRIP TO GREAT
FALLS In 1888
OLD MONTANA CENTRAL HELD
ONE OF THE MOST SCENIC
ROUTES IN u. s.

OR A. III. Hershey, one Of the
hest descriptive writers In the west,
saws the Introductory to an article
that appeared in the Helena Record
OF April IS, 1888, has written for
this paper a description OF ais trip
10 Great Falls over the Montana
Central railway" In the doctors
ODiniOn the Montana Central was
one az the outstanding scenic
routes In the United States. His
article which deals with the seem
erv between Helena and Great Falls,
reads In part as follows:
.aThe sleeping valley with its wind
ing WilloW-fringed streams, its yellow
fields and meadows, and its nesting
COTTAGE homes, as it lies bathed in the
radiant sunlight Of perfect April day,
makes a lovely and peaceful picture
In its frame Of azure, snow-npped
mountains, but this soon gives way to
a wide expanse of broken hills through
which the road follows a sinuous course
to the entrance to the upper Prickly
Pear canyon.
Blending of Weird
'eThe title of The Scenic Route
could most justly be assumed by the
Montana Central railroad. Nowhere
among the mountain lands Of the earth
is there so magnificent q blending of
the weird, the grand and the pictur-
esuue as is presented in this panorama
of changing landscape through which
it has wrought its iron path, and the
most vivid descriptive portrayal can
shadow forth but dirnly the majestic
and beauty which entrance the traveller
from the beginning to the end Of his
Journey over the country IN this noun
tain climbing, chasm-leaping railroad
line.
Its rugged entrance from the wide
valley and fertile plateau OF the Mis-
souri,, through the mighty gorge at the
head of which stands the cloud-SWept
portals of the Gate of the Mountains
and the deep cleft canyon of the Prickly
Pear, is the most fitting one to the
territory whose purple domes and
snowy peaks are among the grandest
In the world; and, should the. tourist
extend his wayfaring no farther, he
has witnessed a series OF mountain
views such as none other OF the deep
recesseS of the continent can reveal.
Viewed In 1742
I'm 1742 two sons of Chevalier YER
andrye passed down the Missouri from
Three Forks to the Falls, the first OF
our race to behold the wonders OF its
exit from the land of perpetual snow.
years later, on the 18th OF
July, the little flotilla Of Lewis and
Clark accomplished the marvellous pas
sage on their memorable voyage to the
Pacific.
Here some Of the gods have labored
On the talismanic chiseling of the rocks. |
IN their fantastic fashioning the
shadowy wraiths Of every architectural
device in which man has sought TO
voice his story through the ages can be |
iimly traced; domes, pyramids, pillars
and monoliths pierce the sky, monu-
nents of spectral ruins. Beneath the /
,clllptured cliff and obelisk a ghoStly /
ace appears, or, in colossal dimensions |
suddenly stands forth the dim outlines
If a mailed warrior; one Is reminded
If the accounts given by travellers OF
The storied Tyrian and Babylonian
carvings Of Phoenicia and the Eu
lhrateS which are as crude and scarcely
ess mysterious than these weird trac-
ngs of the elements.
"Out from between the giant obelisks,
which mark the extreme outp0StS OF
he mountain battlementS, the missouri
,ecomes the tamest of streams for
many miles until its forces begin again
o gather for the mighty plunge OF the
Black Eagle and Rainbow falls. Here
nay be seen all the majesty and poetry
# waters.
Observer SpeIIbound
Not Niagara nor Yellowstone with
II their immensely and power, nor
nor the Bridal Veil, with
heir serenity and romantic beauty, can
fer more wondrous attractions than
ere keep the observer spellbOund with
be voice of the cataracts and the fairy
ints Of curling eddies and floating
lists.
Near at hand is the Giant spring, q
yonderful cauldron of bubbling waters |
I fabulous depth, fairly described by
evils and Clark, unchanged today in
he ceaseless flow of its crystal stream,
s source as mysterious as that of the |
ubbling waters of the geysers Of Won {
erland 8
"The tourist who crosses the con-