7/23 to 7/28Today, Saturday, we moved the RV to the fair grounds and signed up for 5 days. We want to rest up some since we were on the move for almost a week. There are five falls here known as the “Great Falls of the Missouri. Great Falls, Montana is centrally located along the 4000 mile Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. In 1803 President Jefferson commissioned Merriweather Lewis to find a suitable water route to the west coast. Lewis and Clark left St. Louis in 1804 by boat to find that route. At sunrise on June 13, 1805 Captain Meriwether Lewis left the Corps of the Delivery at what is now Belt Creek in search of the falls Indians had told them were ahead. The Indians referred to them as the Great Falls. He traveled about 6 miles. In his journal he recorded, “Whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water, advancing a little further, I saw the spray arise above the plains like a column of smoke which would frequently disappear in an instant – which soon began to make a roaring to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri.” The falls were more than 80 feet giving him a view that he described as “the grandest sight I had ever beheld.” The next day he continued upstream and discovered a second set of falls, this one 19 feet high and 100 yards across. As he continued up the river he found 3 more falls. Since there was no way to get their boats up these falls, Lewis and Clark and Company “portaged” the boats over land which means they built trailers from local trees to haul the boats. The banks of the river at the falls were very high. They found a location where a creek, which Lewis named Portage Creek, flowed into the Missouri. The banks of this creek sloped gradually to the creek so they were able to begin the 18 mile portage around the Great Falls. It took them much longer than Lewis had originally thought due to the rolling terrain they had to cross. There is a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls. We watched documentaries about the falls and the trail in the area. They also gave us lots of information about the Indians as they were a great help to them. It was very interesting to us. We also drove to see most of the falls. Three of these falls now have a hydroelectric dam on them and there are two other hydroelectric dams within the area. This hydroelectric power provides electricity for ½ of Montana. Most of the days while here it was pretty hot. Great Falls has a number of Buffalo Statues around their city. These are a fund raiser for the city.. It is our understanding several cities are doing this. The city furnishes the statue and citizens paint the statue and give it an appropriate name. Then at a later date they are auctioned off to the highest bidder.. Great Falls hosts the Montana State Fair and it starts the day after we leave, 7/29. In the evenings we walked around the big fair grounds to see the preparations for the State Fair