One of Many Firsts

The narrowleaf cottonwood, a tree "with a leaf like that of the wild cherry," was first described for modern science by Lewis on June 12, 1805. Other expedition firsts near Great Falls included documenting the cutthroat trout, thirteen-lined ground squirrel, swift fox, bushy-tailed woodrat, western meadowlark, squaw currant, and Brewer's blackbird. Cottonwoods were vital to the Corps of Discovery for firewood, shelter, tools, and transport: the corps crafted dugout canoes and paddles from the trees to ascend the Upper Missouri, and made cottonwood cartwheels to portage the dugouts around the falls. The cottonwood also played an important role in the lives of Plains Indian tribes, who used nearly every part of the tree, including leaves for poultice, buds for yellow dye, inner bark for food for horses and people in lean times and as firestarter, branches for firewood, roots for firestarter, bark for medicinal tea, and twigs for food for horses. Montana's cottonwood groves are disappearing. Steamboats traveling the Missouri during the 1800's required entire groves of cottonwood to feed their boilers, and today a thriving beaver population, hungry cattle, and dams threaten the remaining groves. Cottonwoods release their seeds in the spring, when streams are swollen with snowmelt, and floodwaters deposit seeds and silt high along a river's channel, where saplings can grow safely above ensuing high waters and winter ice; dams have eliminated this important spring flooding on many stretches of river. Loss of cottonwoods could have devastating effect on wildlife because three out of four Montana wildlife species rely on riverside habitat.

Great Falls, Montana · United States