The Missouri River near Great Falls drops 500 feet in 21 miles. The five waterfalls in the river canyon forced an arduous portage of the Lewis & Clark Expedition nearly 200 years ago. Decades later though these same conditions provided opportunities for a fledgling hydro-power industry and by the late 1880s hydro-electric power was being generated near Black Eagle Falls. A silver smelter and the giant Anaconda Company Refinery were sited near this abundant power source and were linked by a number of railroads to the rest of the nation. As the appetite for power increased, new dams and powerhouses were built at Rainbow, (1910), Ryan (1915), Morony (1928), and Cochrane (1958).

Cochrane Dam under construction in 1958

The smelter and refinery are long gone. Abandoned portions of the Great Northern and Milwaukee railroads now provide the backbone of urban portions of the River’s Edge Trail. Area hydro-electric facilities, owned by PPL Montana, have been updated over the years and continue to provide clean electric power. PPL Montana also provides conservation and trail easements on native lands along the reservoirs that comprise much of the gravel and single track portions of the trail.

River’s Edge Trail in the fall of 1989

A conceptual plan for a riverside recreational trail in Great Falls was developed by the City-County Planning Board staff in 1989. Dubbed the Riverfront Recreational Corridor, the trail was to extend 7 miles from the Broadwater Bay area downstream to Rainbow Falls. The trail, re-named the River’s Edge Trail following a Name-the-Trail contest in the Great Falls Tribune, captured the interest and support of the community. A volunteer group that advocated local bike trails, also in 1989, as part of the Vision 2000 community planning process, began working with the City to develop the first segments of the trail. That group was formalized as a non-profit 501 c3 corporation named Recreational Trails, Inc. (RTI).

Over the last 19 years RTI has continued to work with the City, FWP, PPL Montana and many other partners, agencies, groups and individuals to extend and improve the 40 + mile trail. Much of the trail has been constructed on abandoned railroad and road rights-of-way and structures. Miles of new trail connecting these segments have been constructed, as have many new tunnels, underpasses, bridges and trailheads. Volunteers have undertaken an on-going intensive cleanup of riverfront lands that had been littered with debris over the past decades, and have spent thousands of hours on weed control, tree planting, maintenance and enhancement projects.

1914 Milwaukee Bridge.

Volunteers contemplate the site of first bridge needed for the trail, over 6th Street, in 1990.