SignatureMT | 49
~A life-long interest in
communications made
Suzanne Waring first a college
instructor and then a writer.
She lives in Great Falls and
writes about Montana people
and their communities.
MT
S
Was Broadwater
Bay Named
After C.A.
Broadwater?
Written by Suzanne Waring
I
t is unlikely Broadwater Bay in
Great Falls was named for the
early pioneer, C. A. Broadwater.
Even before a board that named the
parks was created, the term, Broadwa-
ter Bay, was being used in newspaper
articles in the 1880s to identify the
quiet, wide expanse of the Missouri
River located west of downtown.
By 1894 the mayor and the newly
formed Park Board Commission had
started
looking for
tracts of
land that
would be-
come parks.
A designat-
ed piece of
property
identified as
Sun River
Tracts and,
at that time, located outside the city
limits was sold to the city in
two parcels by David omas and
James Chambers in 1890 and 1894
respectively. Becoming one parcel of
land, it had extensive frontage on the
Sun River.
is area was to be named Broad-
water Park to honor C. A. Broadwater,
"Montana's most illustrious citizen
and a warm friend and believer in the
destiny of Great Falls."
When these Sun River Tracts
were later officially named, it became
Wadsworth Park in honor of O. F.
Wadsworth, one of the park commis-
sioners. Because the Park and Recre-
ation Department records indicate that
Broadwater Bay Park was named in
honor of C. A. Broadwater, it is entirely
possible that the honor was later offi-
cially transferred when the Broadwater
Bay area became a park .
C. A. Broadwater. Photo courtesy
of History Museum
