Chapter 15: Scenes Along the Missouri River

In 1954, all I knew of Black Eagle, a small community located across the 9th and 15th street bridges from Great Falls, was the towering smokestack of the Anaconda Company.  Mom and Dad routinely referred to the sprawling industrial complex as "the smelter".  It wasn't until many years later when I became aware of the diversity of Black Eagle's resident.

Here's an excerpt from an article published in the September 18, 2002, Great Falls Tribune.

Black Eagle, the little community north of Great Falls, grew up in the shadow of the Big Stack, and its heyday rose and fell with the fortunes of the Anaconda Mining Co.

Situated above the Missouri River and the falls, which were named for a black eagle’s nest on an island below the falls, the community became a melting pot of the area’s immigrants.

In fact, Black Eagle was home to immigrants of as many as 20 nationalities who proudly proclaimed they had come to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s to find a better life. The European mix came from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Greece, Norway and countries in between. Most worked at the Anaconda Co. metals refinery that was part of their neighborhood.

A platted addition, called Little Chicago because of its industrial and ethnic nature, later was assimilated into Black Eagle. Little Milwaukee was there, too, but the area was never platted. Residents of Little Milwaukee had to move to Little Chicago when the company expanded the plant.

Residents were famous for their camaraderie. Black Eagle was considered one big neighborhood with a diversity of characters whose common bond was loyalty to their families, friends, community and the company — the Anaconda Co. — where most of them worked.

Larry and I appear fascinated as we watch the water of the Missouri River rush over the falls just east of the Black Eagle Dam.   The original dam and powerhouse were construction in 1890.  What we're looking at is its mid-1920s replacement.

I'm guessing that the picture above was taken along what is now River's Edge Trail, which in 1954 was 35 years before the start of its planning phase.    Although it looks to be taken from a great height, the picture below, a more distant view of the Black Eagle Dam, 733 feet across, is one of many panoramic vistas along River Road North.  (Note the power lines cross the river.)  From this point, you can understand why our first visit to Niagara Falls didn't immediately knock our socks off.   A different story, though, once we reached the one of the overlooks where the water is almost close enough to touch.

In the upper left hand corner of the photo below, you see the faint outline of the 15th Street Bridge.  The "Big Stack" is out of picture to the right.

Rainbow Dam (below), constructed in 1910, is located about two miles northeast of Giant Springs, which made it a natural follow-up destination on our family drives.  "Going for a ride" remained a popular family activity until the mid-1960s, or, more specifically, until I, the oldest of four children, got my driver's license.  Then began the relentless requests to use the family car.  (And we were always a one-car household.)

I suspect this is a view of an inhospitable curve of the Missouri River looking east from Rainbow Dam.