page_title: Great Falls (Missouri River)
section_title: Dams
hierarchical_section_title: Great Falls (Missouri River) / Settlement of the area / Dams
caption_attribution_description: English: Rainbow Falls and Rainbow Dam on the Missouri River, Great Falls, Montana, USA. Scanned Fujicolor negative. Français&#160;: Barrage Rainbow et chutes Rainbow sur la rivière Missouri, Great Falls, Montana, Etats-Unis
context_page_description: The Great Falls of the Missouri River are a series of waterfalls on the upper Missouri River in north-central Montana in the United States. From upstream to downstream, the five falls along a 10-mile segment of the river are:
  Black Eagle Falls
  Colter Falls
  Rainbow Falls
  Crooked Falls, also known as Horseshoe Falls
  Big Falls, also known as the Great Falls,
  The Missouri River drops a total of 612 feet from the first of the falls to the last, which includes a combined 187 feet of vertical plunges and 425 feet of riverbed descent. The Great Falls have been described as "spectacular", one of the "scenic wonders of America", and "a major geographic discovery". When the Lewis and Clark Expedition became the first white men to see the falls in 1805, Meriwether Lewis said they were the grandest sight he had beheld thus far in the journey.
  The Great Falls of the Missouri River were depicted on the territorial seal of the Montana Territory, and later on the state seal of Montana in 1893.
context_section_description: Only one of the waterfalls that comprise the Great Falls of the Missouri River, Crooked Falls, exists in its natural state today. Dams built on the falls beginning in the 1880s have significantly altered and even submerged the five waterfalls. Black Eagle Dam was built in 1890, and half of Black Eagle Falls are now submerged in the reservoir behind the dam. This structure was the first hydroelectric dam built in the state.
  Rainbow Falls was dammed in 1910 when Rainbow Dam was built. The reservoir behind the dam submerged Colter Falls.
  Volta Dam was built on top of the Great Falls in 1915, and later renamed Ryan Dam in 1940 in honor of John D. Ryan, the president and founder of the Montana Power Company.
caption: Rainbow Falls and dam in 2000.
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