Dad's Story Part 14

Great Falls, Montana

-1929 – 1933-

            Great Falls, Montana is a little “jewel” of a city in north central Montana on the south bank of the Missouri River.  When we lived there its population was about 30,000.  The city got its name from a large falls in the river east of the city.  A large hydroelectric generating plant at the falls provided an abundance of cheap electricity for the city and for a large copper refinery across the river from Great Falls at Black Eagle.  The refinery belonged to the Anaconda Copper Company.  Besides producing near pure copper ingots by the electrolytic process.  They also made copper wire. 

            Great Falls’ domestic water supply came from a large spring just east of the city near the bank of the river, called Giant Springs.  The flow of this spring was constant the year around, and had a flow of thousands of gallons per hour.  There was a fish hatchery at the springs. 

            The countryside in this part of Montana is very barren of trees.  The low rolling hillsides are covered with grass and wild flowers in the spring and early summer, but there are no trees or brush except along the banks of the river.   

            The first house we lived in was on about 15th East on Central Avenue.  It was a new house.  I believe we were its first tenants.  About all I remember of this house was that it had a furnace that was controlled with a thermostat, which was a very new invention at the time.  I also remember that there were no lawns or landscaping around the house, and the following spring Dad worked very hard to get a lawn started around the house. 

 a new invention:the thermostat

            We learned during our first winter in Montana what 40 degrees below zero temperatures are like, and that the wind blows very hard and drifts the snow into ten to fifteen foot drifts.  We soon learned the necessity of keeping ears, fingers, and toes well covered or they would freeze in a very short time.  And when they did become frost bitten the thawing out process was very painful.