Great-Falls Travel Guide
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89 miles N of Helena; 219 miles NW of Billings
Great Falls, named for a series of waterfalls on the Missouri River, is a big city. An important cog in the U.S. military strategy, it is the control point for a number of U.S. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Malmstrom Air Force Base is also the launching point for the new X-33, the space shuttle of the future.
But the country around Great Falls looks much as Charlie Russell found it and painted it at the end of the 19th century. Russell made his home Great Falls, and did much of his painting in his studio there.
Lewis and Clark came through with the Corps of Discovery, making an 18-mile portage around the falls. It is a sign of Great Falls' progress that it is now known as "The Electric City," because the falls that Lewis and Clark marveled at have been tamed by a series of dams to provide electric power.
