Great Falls (Missouri River) - Names of The Great Falls

Names of The Great Falls

The Mandan Indians knew of the cataracts, and called them by a descriptive (but not formal) name "Minni-Sose-Tanka-Kun-Ya" or "the great falls." The South Piegan Blackfeet, however, had a formal name for Rainbow Falls, and called it "Napa's Snarling." No record exists of a Native American name for any of the other four waterfalls.

Four of the five waterfalls were given names in 1805 by American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark named Crooked Falls in their journals. Clark named three of the remaining waterfalls on his map: "Great Falls" (which retains its name to this day), "Beautiful Cascade" (now called Rainbow Falls), and "Upper Pitch" (now known as Black Eagle Falls). "Beautiful Cascade" was renamed "Rainbow Falls" in 1872 by Thomas B. Rogers, an engineer with the Great Northern Railway. Colter Falls received its name from Paris Gibson, in honor of John Colter (a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition). Black Eagle Falls is named for the black eagle which built a nest in a cottonwood tree on an island in the middle of the falls. It is not clear when the falls lost their original name of "Upper Pitch," but they had acquired their modern name by at least 1877.