Lewistown and Great Falls Area Questions

[bobbydean]

Swamp Ninja,

You have your perspective right and I hope I it works for you. Like the way you are doing your homework!

 

[Big Sky]

Well you might have to make a few adjustments, but one you will like is that we measure public land around here in the hundreds of thousands and millions of acres as opposed to 20,000 acres. Definitely a perk to living in the West.

 

[bigsky2]

I live in Lewistown and don't plan on ever leaving. I have lived here for 3 years and have found people to be pretty friendly. The central location is really nice. The only advantage Great Falls has over Lewistown IMO is the trout fishing on the Missouri and of course the amenities of a bigger town. Chain restaurants, etc. bring people though, and more people means the hunting and fishing isn't usually as good. A lot of the private land around Lewistown is being sold off to rich people who don't allow hunting but anymore you will find that just about everywhere. Out of the bigger towns in MT, Great Falls may not have the best scenery but it isn't growing as fast as Bozeman and Missoula either. I wouldn't mind living there if I had to. Housing prices are better than the other big towns in MT. I would say both Lewistown and Great Falls are good places to raise a family.

 

[2ski]

I was born and raised in Great Falls. There's nothing wrong with GF. The wind blows, but I would take the wind in GF over the wind in Bozeman. When it blows in Bzm its this really gusty annoying wind. Great Falls, its just the wind. No big deal. Its different. I can't really describe it but it is. It did used to piss me off as a kid when a Chinook would blow in and the 2 feet of snow you had the night before would almost be gone and you would be wearing a t-shirt at 5AM to deliver papers. Crazy stuff. As far as the schools go, I think GF has an outstanding public school system. I see all sorts of people go to great Colleges that came out of Great Falls. Tons of people from my graduating class went out of state to great schools. The music programs in GFPS are second to none in the state. I would put the GF music groups against anyone in the state. Bozeman thinks its this artsy fartsy town and I look around were I live and it doesn't have near as what GF has for a music program. Put this way, I live in Bozeman. I'm a huge MSU fan. But I would put up the 2 GF high schools' music groups up ahead of MSU's. You didn't ask about music. That's just to make my point that there is nothing wrong with GF schools in fact they have a lot going for them. I had prof's ask for my paper's back so they could use them as examples to future classes. And I learned how to write in GF.

As far as the outdoors. There is tons of stuff to do. The river has been mentioned for fishing. You can put your boat in at Broadwater bay(right in the middle of town) and head upstream. Lots of people do that for the first few miles upstream and they're out there with surf boats and ski boats and fishing boats. You just have to learn the river. Its not just go anywhere. If a person goes with someone that knows the river their first time out, its easy. Below Holter Dam is blue ribbon fly fishing. Holter lake is a great place to go boat/fish/take the family. Going along the river for a good portion of the river in town and a few miles out of town, is the River's Edge Trail. If you get out downstream from Rainbow Dam, you won't see hardly anyone. Walking, running, biking. Its a great place. Freezeout has been mentioned for ducks. Benton lake is even closer. Like 5 minutes from town and you are hunting ducks. Pheasants are awesome in the area. Antelope. Mule Deer. Whitetail. All over. Elk in the Little Belt Mountains and Highwoods to the east. The Rocky Mountains to the West. You want to backpack in to the Bob Marshall for a wilderness hunt, its under 2 hours away. Showdown is a great place to ski. Everyone knows everyone up there. And there are a lot of places outside of Great Falls a person could live in but still work in Great Falls. Simms, Belt, Cascade, Highwood, Centerville, FT. Benton. Look into FT. Benton. That's a beautiful place on the river. All those are under 1000 people.

Around Lewistown you have the Snowies too. Cool ice cave up there.

 

[Rancho Loco]

Thanks guys. Your summary of the people and economy sounds about like what I thought and what I would expect in any smaller town. I couldn't imagine a better economy than where we currently reside. We are not rich nor even considered wealthy but we both have the ability to make a good living, her more so than me, and we have no debt. Needless to say we are not looking to move for more money, hell if I made the same amount as I do now I would be ecstatic.
We wish to raise our kids like we were, in a smaller town with the outdoors in the backyard.. 4H, FFA, Cows, Chickens, gardens, teaching kids how to fix things, how to work, think outside the box and generally how not to be a useless human like other kids that I see. Its all about quality of life. I grew up near 20000 acres of public land and one of the largest rivers in the Southeast. I had a boat, 4wheeler and 22 rifle way before most people would think suitable. I want my kids to have similar opportunities. I feel that Mt can provide the classroom, Its up to me to do the rest.

Sorry for the rant. I just wanted you to know our reasons for moving.

You need to visit in Winter.

 

[Coyotes-R-Us]

Montana public lands...
Acres of public land in Montana 94,109,440

 

[dcopas78]

Lewistown is a neat place. I've been through there a few times over the last few years. I didn't get to do much, but the stores I stopped in and the people I talked to were great. I haven't been to Great Falls, so I can't say yay or nay about it. Lewistown would definitely be a great place to raise kids.

 

[Nemont]

If you want small town America look to some of the little towns around both Lewistown and GF. I could name a few that would be great communities and you can still be close to all the services and shopping you want.

Fort Benton
Belt
Simms
Highwood
Denton
Stanford
Fairfield

Back when I was getting my degree and thought I wanted to be a teacher, I student taught in Lewistown, Nearly wore out a fly rod. You can get to Fort Peck as long as the water is high enough to launch a boat at Crooked Creek and you can access a TON of upland bird places all around the area.

Great Falls has all you would want as far as services but there is just some kind of vibe I don't like about Great Falls, not sure why, and that comes from a guy who lives in Glasgow on the east coast of Montana.

Nemont

 

[TBass]

Montana public lands...
Acres of public land in Montana 94,109,440

That's not the first time you've posted that and it's not true. Please check your figures.

 

[mtmiller]

yes, exaggerated public land number

 

[Ben Lamb]

If you want small town America look to some of the little towns around both Lewistown and GF. I could name a few that would be great communities and you can still be close to all the services and shopping you want.

Fort Benton
Belt
Simms
Highwood
Denton
Stanford
Fairfield

Back when I was getting my degree and thought I wanted to be a teacher, I student taught in Lewistown, Nearly wore out a fly rod. You can get to Fort Peck as long as the water is high enough to launch a boat at Crooked Creek and you can access a TON of upland bird places all around the area.

Great Falls has all you would want as far as services but there is just some kind of vibe I don't like about Great Falls, not sure why, and that comes from a guy who lives in Glasgow on the east coast of Montana.

Nemont

Shelby, Conrad, Choteau as well.

You can't go wrong with Any of them, Great Falls included.

And yes, you should visit in the winter. They can be long and daunting until you realize you can still be outside and hunt & fish.

When we moved to Helena from Casper, WY, everyone told us we'd hate the winters here because of all the wind. 9 years later & I'm still wondering what wind everyone was freaking out about. Winters in Helena are much nicer than Casper.

 

[mtmuley]

There's a lot of things nicer than Casper. mtmuley

 

[Ben Lamb]

There's a lot of things nicer than Casper. mtmuley

Like winter anywhere in Montana.

 

[----]

Man, I'd take a job in Casper in a second. I love that part of the world.

 

[mtmuley]

I like driving through it on the way home. mtmuley

 

[LukeDuke]

My parents live in Lewistown as do my grandparents. I do have family that lives in Great Falls as well. I prefer Lewistown as it has more of a small town feel yet it's still a fairly large sized town compared to the other communities in the surrounding area. As someone else mentioned, you may have to travel to Billings/etc for specialized medical services or other special items. The last time I needed to get there in a time crunch, the Lewistown airport was still sending out daily flights to Denver or Billings. That was probably 6 yrs ago and I don't think you can catch those flights out of there anymore. Not sure if you need to travel for biz or not, but if you do, you might want to keep that in mind as I know Great Falls has an airport. If you have access to the Wilks runway, then Lewistown for sure...haha.