Exploring Great Falls

Yesterday we ventured to 3 different attractions in Great Falls - River Edge Trail, Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum and the Montana State Fair.  We had to catch up because the first couple days we were in this area the high for the day was over 100, so we didn’t do much outside.

River Edge Trail is a walking and biking trail that runs 58 miles.  We rode our bikes on about 8 miles of it seeing four of the five Great Falls Waterfalls.  This is a little deceptive because one of the waterfalls is under water.  They showed you where it was, but obviously it didn’t look like anything.  Since we are here in the middle of summer, the falls are not as full as they are in the spring.  Two of the falls we saw have dams.   We enjoyed the ride and the scenery.

These are Black Eagle Falls

Rainbow Falls

Crooked Falls - as you will see there is not much water flowing at this time.  However, we did see a deer walking around down on the rocks.  The other animal that we saw that I had never seen before were white pelicans.  They were too far away to take a picture, but they had a huge wing span and the typical pelican beak.  

Lastly these were fun metal figures of Lewis and Clark on the trail

Malmstrom Air Force Base

The first interesting fact about this base is that the first year they were open, they realized that the winters were very harsh and trying to get the planes warmed enough to fly was a huge undertaking.  

Their next mission was the lend/lease program with Russia.  This was part of the allied effort against Hitler.  This base processed approximately 8,000 planes for this program.   They flew them from Montana to Alaska, where the Russians picked them up.  

The next and current mission of the base is being part of the minuteman missile mission.  They house over 3/4s of the current active missiles over 13,800 miles of Montana.  They use helicopters, not planes to support this effort.  We learned about the squadrons and how they are at a site for 4 days at a time and are a family in and of themselves with each having certain responsibilities.

We spoke with a gentleman who was retired military and ran the museum.  He had done tours in Iraq and Kuwait.  One of the things they stated was that the missile shifts are 24 hours.  I asked isn’t it hard to stay awake.  He said they can nap in shifts, as there are two people on duty in the cement bunker at all times.  However, he said from his time in the military it is fairly easy to stay awake for 24 hours or longer due to your duty assignments.  We learned about how the missiles work, the process if they were needed to be used, and that the best defense is the threat.  It was informative but also a little scary to think about the possibilities.

I am not as fluent in military speak as Dave, as many who know me know I like to live in a news free bubble.  It is interesting and I appreciate their commitment but I don’t necessarily need to know the details. 

Here are a couple of pictures of planes they had outside.

                                                            This is one of the missiles

I did find this Graphotype Machine interesting.  It was used to make dog tags.  After WWII, the base became a military transportation hub for equipment and people assigned to Alaska.

Our final destination yesterday was the Montana State Fair.   Rides, animals, food, displays, etc, etc.

These are my highlights as we are not ride people.

We had cowpies for dinner.  They are burgers with various fixins’ surrounded by dough and deep fried.  They were good and not greasy like you would expect.  We also had ice cream.

We saw a schoolhouse that was built by a rancher for his children to go to and then neighboring ranchers children went as well.  To preserve the schoolhouse his Dad built, the son restored it and donated it to the fairgrounds.  

There was a traveling piano player going around the fair.  The piano was literally on wheels.  We couldn’t figure out how he controlled it, but he moved and spun around.  He played all kinds of songs and was enjoyable to listen to him whenever he scooted by.

It was a beautiful night in Montana to walk around a State Fair and see all the people and offerings of a very different part of the country.  My best example of that is they had a Nature exhibit, which was fresh cut pine trees (think Christmas trees), live snakes and lots of taxidermy animals.  I preferred the live bunnies and goats myself.  (Kathy Butler,  there were no chickens.  I think your rooster warned them not to get taken to the fair on the first day and left for 7 days.)

See you after our next adventure.