Several weeks ago I posted about a small book from 1986 titled “What To Do On A Boring Day In Great Falls.” Here’s an excerpt about our city’s founding: Great Falls as a city originated one beautiful sunny day in early May of 1882. On that particular day, Paris Gibson, age 42, climbed to the top of the Boston Heights Hill (First Ave N and 33rd St) and was struck by the awesome beauty of the gently rolling plains...
On Father’s Day, we appreciate all of the things that dear ol’ dad has done for us: life lessons, wisdom, trips together, hunting, shared jokes, and such. So a hearty “thanks!” to all the dads out there – including mine, of course. But this is a blog about Great Falls, so let’s take a moment to remember the man who is, after all, the “Father Of Great Falls” — Paris Gibson. He’s not just some guy that we named...
I’m disappointed: only ONE person left a comment to guess about the Retro picture! So either nobody cared, or nobody (except GeeGuy) was brave enough to venture a guess. The answer is: Buttrey’s! Check out this ad from 1964: Read The Whole Thing >>> Although I arrived in Great Falls a few years after Buttrey’s was transformed into Albertson’s, Smith’s and a few other names, I still hear people refer to the once thriving chain. Did you know that...
Took a little visit about ten miles north of GF to Portage on Saturday; it’s not a town or village – just sort of a one-time train stop with a couple of abandoned grain elevators (?), with a large homestead adjacent. We were there for a huge auction (conducted by the awesome Burows team). We snuck out of the proceedings for a bit and poked around the old buildings; most of the stuff we saw inside (invoices, posters, etc)...
As promised, here is the editorial from the May 1957 “Iniwa” student newspaper at Great Falls High School. The “hobby” being denounced by the article is…carving in desks! Not booze, not smoking, not meth, not tongue-piercings, not smooching…but wood-carving on the desks. I wonder if the school still has this problem? Read The Whole Thing >>> click to see full-size And as requested by wolfpack, I will get the rest of the Iniwa scanned and posted this week. It’s...
The Iniwa is the award-winning newspaper of Great Falls High School, and it has been around for a long time. I stumbled across an edition from May 1957, and apropros of the comments about Bailar’s Ice Cream, here is an ad for same: Read The Whole Thing >>> Another ad from the ’57 Iniwa; any of you remember the J & A Rollercade? And there’s a brief editorial of sorts, too, that I will post later; it is a...
Wow! Quite a party the L&C folks threw today! As promised, the baby bison (two of ‘em!) made an appearance – pretty awesome. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to see the other critters, but it was great to see the displays and attractions: demonstrations of guns, tipis and pelts, games for kids, live music, food. I’m no expert, but it sure looked like a good turnout, too – lots and lots of people, and it sure seemed like everybody...
