More than steamboats and famous explorers, Great Falls’ history is colored with compelling episodes nearly lost to the ages. Historian Ken Robison will discuss his latest book, Hidden History of Great Falls at The History Museum & Research Center’s Ozark Club event room on Second Saturday, April 11. This free admission program begins at 1pm. 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 created Old Town in Great Falls and 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.

Ken’s presentation will have a special focus on the story of Charles & Sue Bovey, a Montana story that began in Great Falls. Charles Bovey, son of a wealthy flour milling executive, and Rachel Sue Ford, daughter of one of Montana’s earliest pioneer ranchers, married and soon became Montana’s earliest and most successful historic preservationists—before preservation was cool. From sharing history through Old Town in Great Falls to saving and restoring Virginia City and recreating Nevada City, the Bovey’s became nationally famous for their successful preservation work and development of important heritage tourism.