Great Falls of the Missouri

On June 13, 1805, Lewis gained absolute confirmation that they were definitely on the correct path. While the Corps of Discovery was spending the winter with the Mandans and Hidatsas, they had many conversations with trappers and Native Americans who had traveled the Missouri to the west, and they had spoken of a tremendous waterfall before the mountains. Lewis recorded his first encounter with the falls:

“I had proceded on … about two miles … whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water … a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.”

“…the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in it’s passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the hight of fifteen or twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them. In short the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present a sheet of the whitest beaten froath for 200 yards in length and about 80 feet perpendicular. … from the reflection of the sun on the spray or mist which arrises from these falls there is a beatifull rainbow produced which adds not a little to the beauty of this majestically grand senery.”

Lewis was overcome by the beauty of the scene and had no idea at this point that this was the first of five waterfalls: Great Falls, Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, and Black Eagle Falls.

After the conversations over the winter, Lewis and Clark knew they would need to portage the boats around the falls, and they had planned on the portage requiring about half a day. Obviously the descriptions they had heard in the winter did not do the falls justice, and Lewis and Clark quickly realized that the portage would be much lengthier and more difficult than anticipated. The Corps of Discovery faced many obstacles: the falls themselves, rough and rocky terrain, unavoidable prickly pears, and fatigue. The sharp rocks and prickly pears were so prevalent that a pair of moccasins would only last two days, and they would have to be repaired after the first day. It was long, hard, exhausting work; and it ended up taking a month to complete the portage instead of the half day they had expected.  Despite the great hardships, the men were undaunted in their determination to succeed.

Rainbow Falls in Great Falls, Montana

We visited three of the falls on our trip: Black Eagle, Rainbow, and Great Falls. Colter Falls is now submerged due to dam construction, and Crooked Falls is much diminished.  None of the falls appear as Lewis first saw them because of the dams. Although, due to the time of year of our visit, the falls were somewhat less than spectacular, I imagine that in the spring time they are still and amazing sight even with the dams. I was most pleased with Rainbow Falls mostly because of the colors in the rock wall over which the water would be flowing in the spring. I’m not at all sorry we went, and I would love to be able to see the falls in the spring time.