2015 - Great Falls, Montana
2015 SIA Fall Tour, Great Falls, Montana, October 9 – 10, 2015.
Organizers of the tour wereFred Quivik (editor of IA), Brian Shovers (president of the Klepetko Chapter of the SIA), and Ellen Sievert (Great Falls’ historic preservation officer).
The O’Haire Motor Inn in downtown Great Falls was the conference hotel.
About the Area
Montana’s second-largest city, Great Falls owes its prominence to a series of falls along the Missouri River that impeded Lewis & Clark’s upstream expedition in 1805 and then, once the Great Northern Railroad reached the territory in the 1880s, became the power source on which boosters built their vision for an industrial future. The Fall Tour visited a variety of operations that have developed around that industrial base.
During the twentieth century, the Montana Power Company developed five hydroelectric generating stations along the Great Falls of the Missouri River, one at Black Eagle Falls, right in the City of Great Falls, and four downstream. Participants of the Fall Tour saw two of them: Rainbow, built in 1910, and Ryan, built in 1915. Other tours included the Minuteman missile training simulator at Malmstrom Air Base, an airliner refurbishing company at the Great Falls Airport, and ADF, a fabricator of large steel structures.
Prior to the arrival of railroads to Montana, steamboat navigation on the Missouri River provided Montana Territory’s main transportation link to states east of the Mississippi, and Fort Benton, about forty miles downstream of Great Falls, was the head of steamboat navigation. The Saturday itinerary included a trip to Fort Benton to see the historical fort site and the Montana Agricultural Center (an impressive agricultural museum, and lunch on the 1889 Fort Benton bridge, the first bridge in Montana to cross the Missouri and the first bridge of iron or steel to be built in the state.
The early-bird tour on Thursday, October 8, visited Helena, Montana’s capital city. The tour included stops at a Boeing facility, a cement plant, and the Archie Bray Foundation, a ceramic arts educational institution that owns the remains of the Western Clay Manufacturing Company, which was featured in Vol. 37 (2011) of IA.
Western Clay Manufacturing Company, located at the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena. This is one of the sites we’ll be seeing on the optional Thursday tour.
Rainbow Powerhouse: built just below Rainbow Falls in 1910, this hydroelectric generating station was originally built to supply electrical power to the copper mines at Butte and to the Anaconda smelter.
Interior of the Rainbow Powerhouse: each generator in this facility is driven by a pair of horizontal-shaft turbines.
Interior of the Ryan Powerhouse: this powerhouse features vertical-shaft turbine-generator units.
2014 - Southern, Indiana
October 5 (Sunday) to October 8 (Wednesday), 2014
2013 - Rockford, IL
September 26-29, 2013
Select on image to enlarge
Library of Congress image: Bird’s eye view of the City of Rockford, Ill, 1880
G4104.R7A3 1880.S7
About Tour
Photographs from tour
2012 - Utica, NY including Rome, Mohawk Valley & Adirondacks
2011 - The Last Green Valley - Quinebaug River in MA and CT
2010 - Vermont
September 16-19, 2010
2009 - Rosendale, NY
October 13-16, 2009
2008 - Chattanooga, TN
October 15-19, 2008
2007 - Ely, NV
Septmeber 27-30, 2007
2006 - Youngstown, Ohio
September 27, October 1, 2006
2005 - Detroit, MI
September 29-October 2, 2005
2004 - Willmington, DE
October 13-17, 2004
2003 - Northeast Montana
September 25-28, 2003
2002 - Lehigh Valley, PA
October 17, 20, 2002
2001 - Syracuse, NY
October 11-14, 2001
2000 - Sarnia, Ontario, Canada - Ontario Oil District, Petrolia)
October 19-22, 2000
1999 - Birmingham, AL
November 3-7, 1999
1998 - Central Connecticut River Valley
September 30 to October 4, 1998
1997 - Alexandria, LA
October 2-5, 1997
1996 - Central Ohio
September 26-29, 1996
1995 - Stellarton, Nova Scotia, Canada
October 4-8, 1995
1994 - Madison, IN
October 20-23, 1994
1993 - Concord, NH
October 1-3, 1993
1992 - South Florida
November 5-9, 1992
1991 - Deadwood, SD
October 9-12, 1991
1990 - Williamsport, PA
October 25-28, 1990
1989 - Butte, MT
October 12-15, 1989
1988 - Easton, PA
September 15-18, 1988
1987 - Pine Barrens, NJ
September 10-13, 1987
1986 - New England Coast
October 2-5, 1986
1985 - Birmingham, AL
October 12-14, 1985
1984 - Niagara Falls
October 12-14, 1984
1983 - Colorado
October 13-15, 1983
1982 - Maine Coast
September 23-25, 1982
1981 - Michigan Upper Peninsula
October 8-11, 1981
1980 - Winston-Salem, NC
Septermber 26-28, 1980
1979 - Pennsylvania Anthracite Region
October 13-15, 1979
1978 - Rhode Island
October 29-30, 1978
1977 - Martha's Vineyard, MA
1977
1976 - Passaic Valley, NJ
October 23-24, 1976
1975 - Toronto & Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
September 27-28, 1975
1974 - Lehigh Valley, PA
1974
1973 - Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Canada
September 22-23, 1973
1972 - Quinebaug & Blackstone Valleys, MA & RI
October 1972