Author Talk: Historian Ken Robison on The Hidden History of Great Falls

In the Cordingley Room:More than steamboats and famous explorers, Great Falls' history is colored with compelling episodes nearly lost to the ages. Glacial Lake Great Falls changed the course of the Missouri River while carving fascinating geologic features like Lost Lake, the Big Sag and Lewis & Clark’s Slaughter River. Copper from Butte mines, Anaconda smelters and Great Falls refineries wired the world and helped win the World Wars. Landless Indigenous peoples sought refuge on a hill called “57.” A local crusading editor became “Montana’s Conscience” and authored the revered Montana High, Wide, and Handsome. A Civil War monument was raised to honor The Blue and The Gray the first in the nation to do so. Pathbreaking preservationists Charley and Sue Bovey saved acclaimed gold rush era Virginia City before historic preservation was cool. Award winning historian Ken Robison brings to life little-known accounts from a storied past in his new book.