Great Falls

the county seat of Cascade County, Montana. The site was occupied by settlers in 1884. The city was incorporated in 1888. The population in 1909 was about 23,000. The falls of the Missouri River afford excellent water power. Flour, furniture, implements, vehicles, and woolen goods are produced. There are extensive grazing, agricultural, and timbered tracts in the vicinity. There are valuable sandstone quarries and mines of iron, coal, lead, silver, copper, and gold. Smelting is the chief local industry. The chimney of the smelter plant of the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company is the largest in the world. In fact, it is exceeded in height by four edifices only--two skyscrapers in New York City, the Washington Monument, and the Eiffel Tower. The shaft stands on a hill and rises 506 feet above the foundation. The inside diameter is 50 feet at the top. The walls are 66 inches thick at the base and 18 inches at the top. The builder set up a brickyard for his own use. The foundation required over 5,000 barrels of cement and the chimney proper required about the same number of barrels of lime. Two hundred thousand feet of timber were required for scaffolding. The structure was built inside of a year and cost nearly $250,000.