Group seeks land along historic trail

GREAT FALLS – Along the Missouri River’s north shore, downstream from Black Eagle Falls, the rocky bluffs look much the same today as when Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through 200 years ago.

With a proposed land purchase, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation aims to keep it that way. The nonprofit organization is negotiating to buy 15 acres across from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Giant Springs State Park.

The land will remain largely undeveloped in the future, and the foundation wants to make it accessible to the public by expanding the River’s Edge Trail between Black Eagle Falls and Rainbow Dam.

That section of land is the only missing link in an 18-mile stretch of trail along the north shore of the Missouri River. Expansion of the River’s Edge Trail through that area will allow uninterrupted access from West Bank Park in Great Falls to Morony Dam.

Fearful that future development along the riverfront property would ruin the view, the nonprofit group acted quickly when the land went up for sale this spring. It negotiated to buy the land for $210,000 from the children of former Great Falls residents Paul and Bernice Wilhelm.

Now the foundation is trying to raise the money to pay for the 15-acre parcel. It can afford only about half the purchase price, said Jay Russell, the foundation’s executive director. The rest, he hopes, will come from private donors and other foundations.