Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce

71 Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce www.greatfallschamber.org Outdoor Beauty is All Around Great Falls E N T E RTA I N M E N T FIRST PEOPLES BUFFALO JUMP First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park and National Historic Landmark is an archaeological site with possibly the largest bison cliff jump in North America. Native peoples used this site for at least a thousand years before Lewis and Clark passed through here. The bison jump site consists of a mile long sandstone cliff; there are remnants of drive lines on top of the cliff and there are up to 18 ft. of compacted buffalo remains below the cliff. The park has an interpretive trail, picnic tables and a black-tailed prairie dog town to help the visitor better understand the epic history of hunting on the high plains. In an effort to pay homage to the buffalo and the people who honor this mighty animal, First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park has a terrific on-site education Visitor Center. The 6,000 square foot center offers visitors buffalo culture exhibits, a storytelling circle, classroom, gallery and bookstore. An outdoor amphitheater and traditional games playing fields are featured outdoors. For hundreds of years, Indians stampeded buffalo over the mile-long cliff. Now, the top of the jump provides expansive panoramic views of the Rocky Mountain Front, the Missouri River valley, and the buttes and grasslands that characterize this High Plains setting. Plan at least a two-hour stop in this day-use-only park. GIANT SPRINGS The centerpiece of Heritage State Park is Giant Springs, the world's largest freshwater spring, bringing 14 million galls of water per hour to the surface from an aquifer 75 miles away in the Little Belt Mountains. With nearly 150,000 visits each summer, Giant Springs State Park in Great Falls draws the most visitors of all Montana's state parks. Described by Meriwether Lewis as the "beautiful fountain" when the explorers first saw it in 1805. The area is a popular picnic destination. The state also maintains a trout hatchery at the park open to the public. In the long and short of it, Great Falls is a city of rivers. The history-laden Missouri, the Sun, and the Roe, all come together here. The Missouri, at 2,341 miles long, is only nine miles shorter than America's longest river, the Mississippi. The Roe River, running just 200 feet from Giant Springs into the Missouri, on the north edge of Great Falls has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's shortest river. The Sun River flows out of the Rocky Mountain Front to empty into the Missouri at Broadwater Bay near downtown Great Falls. Website: stateparks.mt.gov/giant-springs Photo: Great Falls Montana Tourism

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