Fellow Montana blogger Randy alerted me to the June 5th editorial in the Great Falls Tribune (print copy here), which noted that Great Falls businesswoman Claire Baiz lamented the less-than-stellar image that Great Falls has when compared to other Montana towns:
“Sadly,” she wrote, “Great Falls fills the role of the ugly stepsister of Montana cities. You want the smart one, date Missoula. You want the rowdy one, see Butte. The up-and-comer? Billings. The sister with clout? Helena. The popular girls? Try the Valley Girls from Kalispell or Bozeman.”
So…how to remedy the image of Great Falls? What makes Great Falls unique among Montana towns? Well, this website that you’re reading tells you what I think of our community: Greater Falls sums it up. I love it, like I’ve never loved any other location that I’ve spent time in. But why? I’ll start posting some of my reasons over the next several weeks, and if you want to add your two cents, please leave a comment here or e-mail me at david @ greateralls.com.
“Ugly stepsister?” I think not. I travel extensively, and have a pretty good handle on life between Alaska and Mexico, and Great Falls continues to be my destination of choice, whenever I feel the need to flee my native “Socialist Republic of Canada.”
I love Great Falls for what it has—such as the very finest cut of beef on this continent (Eddie’s campfire tenderloin), and the most genuine, warm people one could ever hope to visit with. Yes, you’re missing a few things, like a good view of the mountians, but you also have a shortage of factors most of us detest. I would think, for example, that the percentage of GF kids with pierced tongues, would be extremely low.
When you pull up to someone at a red light in GF, chances are they’re listening to am stations like 560 or 1310. Few motorists in your city are doing their best to loudly convince us they’d be more at home in the “projects,” than enjoying cattle country.
Yes, your city is homespun—but that’s a huge bonus for many of us. I don’t know that it matters much whether Starbucks came to town or not. The positive, understanding conversations one gets into at places like the VFW Club, or the Golden Corral, are probably more meaningful than what the plastic folks engage in, anyway.
I very much appreciate your country, and Great Falls will continue to be my favorite place to express the affection I have for Uncle Sam.
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