Gibson Park Wildlife

Family enjoying Gibson Park swans, circa 1930s. [2014.007.0027]

The shady trees, flower garden, and waterfowl pond, a rare sight on the dry Montana prairie, sets Great Falls’ Gibson Park apart. Named the “jewel of the park system” by the City of Great Falls, it has the most amenities available to the public.

Gibson Park was one of the first three city parks. It was first named Cascade Park and was renamed for the founder of Great Falls, Paris Gibson in 1903. Great Falls was designed to have many parks and tree lined boulevards, largely inspired by the city of Minneapolis, where Paris Gibson lived for 21 years.

In the early days of Gibson Park deer, antelope, and elk were kept in enclosures at the north end of the park. City residents got a chance to see these animals up close for the first time, however the park staff were reminded that the park attractions were in fact, very much wild animals.

The following article is reproduced from the Great Falls Tribune December 1923:

Buck Goes Wild Attacks Keeper

Great Falls Park Superintendent has Narrow Escape from Animal

The six-year-old whitetail buck deer in the west deer paddock at Gibson Park at Great Falls has gone loco, and made a desperate attempt to kill the park superintendent, Frank Reimer, recently, the latter’s life being saved only by desperate work on the part of former Alderman Sleevy with a large hardwood club. The male deer generally go loco for a time during rutting season and the whitetail was raging up and down the fence to such an extent that Mr. Reimer concluded to put him in the house and entered the paddock for that purpose, he and Mr. Sleevy driving he animal in. 

As Mr. Reimer turned at the door to close it, the deer sprang and knocked him to the ground and began goring and trampling him. Reimer, though a powerful man, was helpless. Mr. Sleevy had a hardwood club and rushed in beating the deer over the head and stunned him with several blows, which gave Mr. Reimer a chance to crawl away; the infuriated animal charged Mr. Sleevy several times, but the club proved effective and both men got out of the paddock. Besides having his clothing almost torn from him and suffering many bruises and small cuts, Mr. Reimer was gored in the right leg above the knee, suffering a cut four inches long and four inches deep. A physician was summoned and the wound attended to.

The whitetail buck is still raging in the paddock and the public is warned to keep away from him. Should his rage continue he will be tied, or placed in the paddock house for a time until he becomes his mild and gentle self again. The big blacktail buck went wild two years ago and killed the mother doe of the blacktail family before she could be rescued from his horns but this is the first time that one of the deer has attacked a man, although the bull elk, formerly in the north paddock, used to try to kill someone every day during the month of November. He escaped the paddock one day, and it took the united efforts of several men with clubs to beat him back before he could attack anyone.

Mary Sohl Carter with a captive elk in Gibson Park, circa 1920. [2011.105.174]

Young child admiring a pronghorn at Gibson Park, unknown date. [2007.017.0788b]

Woman feeding a pronghorn at Gibson Park, circa 1920. [2011.105.0220]

It was suggested by the park superintendent in 1919 that the animals be moved to another park for badly needed space, but the deer were not moved until 1932. In need of freedom, the seven deer herd was finally “pensioned off” to the Highwood Mountains near the ranger station. The elk were removed several years prior.

Great Falls Tribune clipping, May 5, 1982. “Squirrels Frolic in Sun”

In 1942, two gray squirrels were purchased from a Pennsylvania dealer. In July 1942, the Tribune reported that the wire enclosure for the two squirrels was opened, and the squirrels had escaped into the wild: perhaps a prank, perhaps squirrel liberation. Two more squirrels were ordered to replace the pair, and the squirrel enclosure remained an attraction through the 1960s.

Swans and Geese in Gibson Park Lake, circa 1900, Heyns Elite Studio. [CCHS 227.001R]

Birds have been a feature of Gibson Park since its beginning, though tragedy has struck the swan population in the Park’s history. In 1973 a female mute swan was killed and stripped of her feathers, her body left abandoned in a nearby alley. Her mate, Adolph, went on a rampage the following spring and again in 1975, that time killing a whistling swan and damaging another. Adolph was sent to Livingston for rehabilitation and successfully re-mated.

In 1974 the two swans were replaced by the purchase of Billie and Buster, but again, in 1982, the swans were preyed upon by an individual who killed the female swan, tore off her wings, and allegedly ate her.

The park manager stated to the Great Falls Tribune that “it’s just not safe or fair to keep [swans] here anymore.” Floods of letters to the park manager pleading to not remove the swans from the park permanently convinced him to let the other swans remain residents and to ask for restitution to purchase a pair of mute swan cygnets.

Two boys feeding ducks at Gibson Park Pond, 1956, Francess Rudd. [1994.038.0193]

Today Gibson Park is a permanent home to a small number of birds including swans, African geese, ducks, and others. Wild seagulls, Canada geese, and neighborhood squirrels are frequent residents as well who benefit from the Park’s visitors and landscaping.