Fun facts about Great Falls, Montana

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:29 am

The federal government is a major force in the Great Falls economy via Malmstrom Air Force Base, which controls 200 nuclear-tipped missiles in silos throughout nine central Montana counties. linkThe Missouri River was a road map for those looking to explore western lands. In the summer of 1805 the expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent a month in the area that later became Great Falls. link Map of Lewis & Clark's Montana travels hereMost Great Falls weather begins over the Pacific Ocean. Moisture blows across famously rainy Washington and Oregon, and eventually into moist, lush western Montana. As storm systems climb the peaks of the Rockies, they get colder. As they get colder, they can hold less moisture, so they dump it in the mountains as snow and rain. Once the storms crest the mountains, they hit the warm air over the vast plains of central and eastern Montana. That warm plains air wants to rise, and the cold mountain air wants to sink. The result can be roaring winds, known to rip roofs, bend highway signs or even knock over tractor-trailers. link[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:35 am

here's a pretty picture

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:39 am

Historical structures

[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:58 am

Weather report here[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ][ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:03 pm

Map of the River Edge Trail hereThis would be a chilly walk in the fall, but probaby scenic as all get-out.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:38 pm

Great Falls entertainment news here

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:41 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
Map of the River Edge Trail hereThis would be a chilly walk in the fall, but probaby scenic as all get-out.<hr></blockquote>Walk? "LOL!"

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:59 pm

And now for the all important drinking establishments in Great Falls[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:05 pm

Obligatory hysterical local news investigation of the perils of overconsumption of fermented and distilled beveragesThis guy's fun got out of hand.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:16 pm

Fun historical tidbit: For more than 1,500 years, native peoples stampeded buffalo over the cliffs at Ulm Pishkun State Park . Possibly one of the oldest, longest and most-used buffalo jumps in the country, this site draws visitors into the past of the Northern Plains, when the buffalo was king and provided food, lodges, tools and more for Native peoples. What a buffalo jump looks like:

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:35 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
And now for the all important drinking establishments in Great Falls[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]<hr></blockquote>Not to get ahead of ourselves, but you should know that the only one that counts isn't on that list.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:37 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
Obligatory hysterical local news investigation of the perils of overconsumption of fermented and distilled beverages<hr></blockquote>That, sir, won a Pulitzer Prize.[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:53 pm

Anchorage Daily News won one in the '80s for essentially the same topic, if memory serves. Must be something about drunken wild westerners that appeals to Pulitzer judges. I'm curious: has the Great Falls paper been flogging its Pulitzer status in its want ads? (On edit: a quick search of Nightmare Jobs found one, all right.)[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 2:13 pm

OK, so you could go your whole career as a reporter and not get a quote much better than this: "I woke up in Idaho once and had no idea in hell how I got there," he said.From part II of the Great Falls Trib's Pulitzer winner.[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

SusanV · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 3:04 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
OK, so you could go your whole career as a reporter and not get a quote much better than this: "I woke up in Idaho once and had no idea in hell how I got there," he said.From part II of the Great Falls Trib's Pulitzer winner.[ June 21, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]<hr></blockquote>Damn. Obviously I missed my chance for glory! My ex tells a funny story about he and a bunch of his fellow cops went to a bachelor party, and he woke up in the Bahamas and had no clue how he'd gotten there. If only I'd thought about it...

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:18 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
Damn. Obviously I missed my chance for glory! My ex tells a funny story about he and a bunch of his fellow cops went to a bachelor party, and he woke up in the Bahamas and had no clue how he'd gotten there. If only I'd thought about it...<hr></blockquote>I don't suppose that helps explain the "ex."

SusanV · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2003 10:54 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
I don't suppose that helps explain the "ex."<hr></blockquote>
LOL not really; it was long before we met.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2003 12:03 pm

Great Falls Tribune rakes in statewide newspaper awards.
linkAmong the awards: First Place -- Linda Caricaburu for best editorial writing; staff for best headline writing; TakÃ© Uda for best deadline news graphic; TakÃ© Uda for best non-deadline graphic; Jo Dee Black and Beth Britton for best business/financial reporting; Mike Dennison for best government reporting; Karen Ivanova for best agricultural reporting; George Geise for best sports event coverage and Stuart White for best spot news picture.**Maybe we could have them give us a seminar**

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2003 1:00 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
**Maybe we could have them give us a seminar**<hr></blockquote>With the size of the Tribune's copy desk in mind, I am sure they could teach us a thing or two.There were 2,321 individual and newspaper entries representing 48 of the 81 Montana Newspaper Association newspapers in the contest .....***Could that be right?***

jmcg · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2003 2:51 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but you should know that the only one that counts isn't on that list.<hr></blockquote>And *that* one is?

tommangan · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2003 4:55 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
With the size of the Tribune's copy desk in mind, I am sure they could teach us a thing or two.<hr></blockquote>At the very least we should be able to finagle a round of drinks out them.

tommangan · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2003 9:44 am

Storm rattles show dogs a bitBy JAN-MIKAEL PATTERSON and SONJA LEE
Tribune Staff Writers

When black clouds rolled into Great Falls Friday afternoon, things at the American Kennel Club-sanctioned dog show got a little bit "ruff."

catwoman · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2003 5:07 pm

Tradition in Montana is to make North Dakotans the butt of all jokes, as in, "How many North Dakotan writers does it take to come up with a dumbass lede"?

pampellfw · **Joined:** Thu Apr 25, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 38

What I wanna know is how Mangan knows all this stuff about Great Falls -- is he a Montanan by birth?

tommangan · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:46 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by pampellfw:
What I wanna know is how Mangan knows all this stuff about Great Falls -- is he a Montanan by birth?<hr></blockquote>Never been to Montana, much less Great Falls. I started this thread for anybody who is thinking of joining Blanchard at the International Testy Copy Editors Convention he's sort of thinking about planning. Great Falls has approximately zero going for it, which is a kind of perverse appeal. I found everything here using Google searches.

JayByrd · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:03 am

Great Falls may have nothing going for it, but Butte is the nation's largest Superfund Site and it's got an in-town open pit mine a mile wide and filling up with water. I suggest you'all come the first week in August for Evel Knievel Days (It's his home town).

Craig Lancaster · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:15 am

I don't know that this qualifies as a "fun" fact, but my father, Ronald Frederick Lancaster, was born on the Fairfield Bench outside Great Falls.And Tom, please: A guy from Peoria should never, EVER cast stones. (This is where I'd include a winking emoticon if Blanchard hadn't disabled them. Which is probably just as well.)

JayByrd · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 4:25 am

Also, we had some sports writers who almost got into legal trouble by trespassing and setting up some tee shots and hitting golf balls into the Pit. We've been considering trebuchlets and hurling cars, but we haven't gotten it together yet.

sarahbtsd · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 10:42 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Craig Lancaster:
This is where I'd include a winking emoticon if Blanchard hadn't disabled them. Which is probably just as well.)<hr></blockquote>Yikes. lol

tommangan · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:40 pm

Great Falls motto: Lewis and Clark crapt here. the celebration of which will last for three years

sarahbtsd · **Posted:** Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:09 pm

How much fun in "a ton of fun?"

catwoman · **Posted:** Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:31 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Craig Lancaster:
[qb]know that this qualifies as a "fun" fact, but my father, Ronald Frederick Lancaster, was born on the Fairfield Bench outside Great Falls.[QUOTE}<hr></blockquote>this bench, for the uninitated, being a land formation, a flat one as you can guess, not some Big Birthing Bench that marks the entrance to Fairfield.[ July 01, 2003: Message edited by: catwoman ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2003 12:09 pm

The weather at month's endThe last day of June -- Monday -- was the hottest day of the month with winds blowing at 33 mph.

Powderhorn · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2003 2:30 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
The last day of June -- Monday -- was the hottest day of the month with winds blowing at 33 mph.<hr></blockquote>Thank goodness the other days with winds blowing at 33 mph were cooler.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat Jul 05, 2003 10:48 am

Man, this really infuriates meThe New York Times writes this long piece of the vanishing native species of Montana and the whole discovery trail of Lewis and Clark, and there is not one word about the most galling fact, from a human perspective, that the Native People are extinct as well. link here

tim · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2003 3:42 pm

The more I learn about Great Falls, the more I decide I must be there for the Testy Copy Editors shindig. This gem I picked up from Dave Barry. Quite an interesting skeleton the dude's holding. You'll also note in the story that Bill Murray was there!

tommangan · **Posted:** Thu Sep 04, 2003 12:16 am

Check this out: an opening on the Great Falls Trib copy desk[ September 04, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ][ September 04, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Sep 04, 2003 4:45 am

I need someone with an economics background to make a presentation at the International Conference, explaining why it's folly for the Great Falls Tribune to pay $11 an hour for a copy editor.

tommangan · **Posted:** Thu Sep 04, 2003 10:39 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
I need someone with an economics background to make a presentation at the International Conference, explaining why it's folly for the Great Falls Tribune to pay $11 an hour for a copy editor.<hr></blockquote>If I had some Gannett stock to shill, I'm sure I could find some good excuses.

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