2. Cascade County

2

Cascade County, number 2 on Montana license plates, was formed by a legislative act on September 12, 1887, two years before Montana Territory was admitted as a state. The county was formed from land taken from Chouteau, Lewis and Clark, and Meagher Counties. Both the county and its seat, Great Falls, are named for the series of waterfalls on the Missouri River that blocked Lewis and Clark on their upriver travel in 1805, forcing them to portage around "the thundering great falls." Bonds were sold for construction of the county's court house in 1901, and over the next two years, the building still serving was built--coming in over budget, of course. Originally the dome was to be of stone, but in the end, copper was used instead. The rest of the building is made of locally quarried sandstone.

Cascade County Court House (1901-1903)

Long Montana's number 2 city, by 2000 Great Falls had fallen to third place after Billings and Missoula, and Cascade County to fifth. The county lies east of the Continental Divide, and slopes down from the Rocky Mountain front into the rolling plains of north central Montana. The western edge of the county is still quite mountainous, with many isolated outcroppings such as the mesa shown here just north of the town of Simms, Montana.

Mesa, western Cascade County

Great Falls was the home of artist Charlie Russell, and his studio has been preserved on the grounds of the C.M. Russell Museum. So important is Charlie Russell to Montana history, that most Montana cities have a CM Russell school and one of the required items on Montana license plates is Russell's signature buffalo skull, which is used on current standard plates to separate the county number from the vehicle number. Russell is also one of two artists enshrined in the U.S. Capitol's statuary hall. The Museum holds an art show and sale every year--an event that has become so popular that Great Falls now hosts three separate art auctions annually.

The Missouri River flows north across Cascade County, and the city of Great Falls has preserved much of the river front as park land. The view below shows the new (2010) Federal Court House that has been built on the banks of the Missouri.

View across the Missouri River, toward the new (2010) Federal Court House

Historically Great Falls has served as a major transportation center, shipping grain out of central Montana on the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. It was the home of one of the Anaconda Company's smelters, and when ARCO, who had bought operations from the Anaconda Company ceased production statewide, five percent of Cascade County's population lost work. Great Falls is also home to Malmstrom Air Force Base, and the possibility of closing the base due to reductions in the US Armed Forces is a constant worry for local business and government alike.

View to the East from the Ulm Pishkun (Buffalo Jump)

The view above was taken at the Ulm Pishkun, now known as First People's Buffalo Jump, a state park located west of the city of Great Falls. In the photo above, we're looking east toward the city, a small windfarm located near the International Airport, and in the distance, the Highwood Mountains. Pishkuns, or Buffalo Jumps, are located all over Montana. They are places where a naturally occurring cliff allowed native people to lure buffalo to their death by stampeding them over the cliff. This allowed people who had no horses prior to the Spanish conquest of North America to gain food, clothing and shelter from the animal central to their very existence. Today the park has an interpretive center and good signage allowing us all to learn about this important aspect of native life.

The 2000 US Census showed 80,357 people living in Cascade County. This number, which had been relatively static since 1970, increased 2.1% by 2008 to an estimated population of 82,026. With a land area of 2,698 square miles, the 2000 census meant a population density of 29.8 people per square mile--most of them living within the city limits of Great Falls. Racially Cascade County is a good mirror of the state as a whole, with 90.6% of the population being white. There is a higher percentage of African Americans in Cascade County than state-wide, largely because of the airbase, and a lower percentage of Native Americans.

You can read more of my writing about Great Falls on my June 16, 2009 blog.

Photo Information:

Note that all photos will open in a larger format and in a new window if you double click on them.

Cascade County Sign: Taken 3/26/2010 at the Judith Basin/Cascade County line on Montana Highway 200. Nikon D80 DSLR, Nikkor 16-85 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens set at 72 mm. ISO 125, f /16.0, 1/10 second. Finished in Photoshop CS4.

Cascade County Court House: Taken 3/14/2010 in Great Falls, Montana. Nikon D80 DSLR, Nikkor 16-85 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens set at 22 mm. ISO 125, f /11.0, 1/90 second. Finished in Photoshop CS4.

Mesa: Taken 3/26/2010 near Simms, Montana. Nikon D80 DSLR, Nikkor 16-85 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens set at 16 mm. ISO 125, f /16.0, 1/20 second. Finished in Photoshop CS4.

Missouri River and Federal Courthouse: Taken 6/13/2009 in Great Falls, Montana. Nikon D80 DSLR, Sigma 18-50 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens set at 50 mm. ISO 125, f /5.6, 1/750 second. Finished in Photoshop CS4.

View from Ulm Pishkun: Taken 3/14/2010 near Ulm, Montana. Nikon D80 DSLR, Nikkor 16-85 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens set at 85 mm. ISO 125, f /11.0, 1/125 second. Finished in Photoshop CS4.

Stimulus? What Stimulus? ARRA? Arrgh!

The Buck Stops Here
Young Rocky Mountain Sheep entering MT Highway 200
Taken (through windshield) June 13, 2009
Near Bonner, Montana

NOTE PLEASE: Clicking on any photograph will open a full-screen version of that photo in a separate window. All links also open in a separate window.

I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand out
I'll be standing with my hand out
Yes sir, I'll get mine

--Tom Paxton

Hear Arlo Guthrie sing this wonderful Paxton song on Youtube.

Should you find yourself wide awake at 3:00 a.m., and as it turns out, your significant other is also wide awake.... And should said s.o. turn to you and ask, "Do you want to go to Great Falls in the morning?" My advice is simple, go back to bed, turn off the lights, pull the covers up over your head, and at least pretend to go back to sleep. Do not, under any circumstances say, "Sure, dear. Why not."

As it turns out, Montana's junior senator, Jon Tester, was holding a "workshop" on how Montana Small Businesses could access some of the stimulus money available through ARRA (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009). Now mind you, we don't have a small business. Oh sure, Kevin has lots of flyers, tear off sheets, and business cards for KerrComm, but I haven't ever seen him do anything with it. KerrComm, or Kerr Communications, is the telephone company that Kevin set up. I guess we could pretend that we might be able to get stimulus money to help set up phone systems. In any event, it would be a chance to get out of town, get some more photos, and maybe learn a bit more about what is really going on in this time of uncertainty. Well, it seemed like a reasonable idea at 3:00 a.m.

I tried, I really tried to get some sleep before we left, but it just didn't happen. It's a three hour drive (under good conditions) from Missoula to Great Falls, and the "workshop" was supposed to begin at 10 a.m. We had no idea when it would end. This meant we would have to be on the road no later than 7. Before then I'd have to make my morning café-au-lait, fix breakfast, shower, shave and all that jazz, shoot the dog (remember Rocky has to have his insulin injections twice a day), and probably fill up the gas tank and wash the car. No wonder I couldn't get back to sleep.

OK, I got up, showered, made my coffee, dressed, and took the Saab for a drink and a shower. Kevin stayed home to shoot Rocky and get his act together. We were on the road by a little after 6 a.m.

We made it 10 miles or so when we came to a screeching halt near a sign warning of road construction and a small herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) taking advantage of the stalled traffic.

Once past the sheep, we stopped again, this time for a road construction red light. We had to wait for the pilot car, and it seemed to take forever. Kevin pointed out that had I not stopped for the sheep, we would not have been first in line now, but rather would have been able to follow the last group through.

Eventually, the pilot car showed up and we followed her for the next ten miles. I was getting concerned as we didn't have a lot of leeway in our transit time, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. A little ways past Johnsrud Park, the construction zone ended and we were able to get back up to speed--whereupon we noticed that one tire was badly out of balance, or the car was out of alignment, or something. Only when we got the car up above 75 mph (the speed limit on rural Montana roads is 70 mph) were we able to sail somewhat smoothly.

Once over Rogers Pass, we took the cutoff to Wolf Creek and I-15. Neither of us are sure if this saved us any miles or even time, but it was a beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountain Front. Once on I-15, we sped on into Great Falls and arrived at the Civic Center with about ten minutes to spare.

Trent Frazier of Customs and Border Protection, an Aide, and Senator Jon Tester
Taken 6/13/09
Great Falls, Montana

The "workshop" turned out to be a chance for various government officials to tell us just why Montana businesses weren't going to benefit from the stimulus package. Oh that's not what they said, but it was certainly what they implied. Senator Tester had brought representatives from Customs and Border Protection, the GSA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Air Force, and the US Forest Service. All of these representatives came with their own aides, and it was amazing that there was any room left for an audience. In fact, the room quickly filled with people standing around the edges and in the doorway. More chairs were brought in, and still people were standing. Montana business folk were looking for a way to survive in these hard economic times.

Over the next two hours we learned that there are seven major projects planned for Montana through ARRA. Five of those involve building or rebuilding border crossing stations, known as Land-based Ports of Entry (LPOE). Two of those are located in the northeastern corner of the state, and the state representative and senator for that district were present.

Long story short, what we learned was that due to the rapid turn around required by the legislation, most of the projects were awarded to out-of-state contractors with whom the various agencies already have relationships. These contractors are supposed to make sure that local subcontractors have a chance to work on the projects. I didn't hear if there is any way to ensure that local businesses actually do get to assist. The questions from the floor were pointed, and usually tended to be more comments in the form of "we have tried to meet your requirements but the paperwork is too time consuming and as a small business we don't have the money or personnel to spend on filling out your forms." One contractor noted that while they had the expertise, the equipment, and the ability to get the job done, the federal government was requiring at least one year of business in Utah. This was for a Montana based job. It makes you wonder.

There were breakout sessions scheduled for the afternoon, where contractors and other business folk could meet directly with the various agency representatives. I chose to wander outside the Civic Center and catch the closing minutes of the Farmers' Market.

Civic Iris
Taken outside the Great Falls (Montana) Civic Center
6/13/09

When Kevin joined me, we walked around the various booths as the vendors were closing up shop. I stopped to get some floral photos before we headed off to find a few geocaches. I'm still introducing Kevin to the joys and frustrations of geocaching, and had printed up four sets of clue sheets for Great Falls. There are 754 caches hidden within a 100 mile radius of Great Falls, but I knew we wouldn't have the time for even a fraction of that number. Four seemed like a good start. As it turned out we found three of the four. We spent quite a bit of time looking for the fourth, unsucessfully, and I really hated to give up. Prior to our attempt, 120 people have found the cache and only one has not. Now we can make it two. Personally, I think the cache has been moved or stolen.

On the way home, Kevin stuck to the Interstate. I-15 to Helena, US 12 to Garrison Junction, and I-90 on to Missoula. I believe that I-15 between Helena and Great Falls is one of the most beautiful drives in the state. There is a scenic viewpoint about half way, with a great view of the Missouri River and a sign naming this stretch as the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Memorial Highway. Since I work for the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, stopping at the viewpoint seemed appropriate.

The Missouri River as seen from I-15
Taken at the Scenic Viewpoint near Wolf Creek, Montana
6/13/09

After a brief stop in Helena to quench our thirst, we headed west on US 12 over McDonald Pass, catching I-90 at Garrison Junction. The skies were becoming increasingly black, and it was not hard to believe that thunderstorms were imminent. We did manage to make it home with only a few raindrops falling on our heads--or on the top of the convertible, but I was able to get some shots of dramatic cloud formations over the hills fronting the highway.

From a photographic standpoint, the trip was a success. It was also a good lesson in how our government works--or doesn't as the case may be. Still and all, I should have answered Kevin's 3 a.m. question by shutting my mouth and going back to bed.

The Angry Big Sky
Storm Clouds over Granite County
Taken near Drummond, Montana
6/13/09