Business Bites: Downtown warehouse sale; Homestead 1909, orthopedic clinic opening; Homebuyer Fair; Glass Menagerie tickets on sale; gas line project downtown; and more
Updated April 9 to correct the date of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center presentation
Downtown Warehouse Sale
Several downtown businesses are joining up for a warehouse sale April 17-18 with up to 90 percent off more than 10,000 items.
Each participating downtown store will have its own area.
Participating businesses include: Bighorn Outdoor Specialists, The Blue Rose, Daydream, Dragonfly Dry Goods, GRAE + Co., Hometana, Inge’s Fashions, Life in Bloom and The Mint.
Bighorn Outdoor Specialists demo day
Bighorn Outdoor Specialists is hosting a demo day with Altra shoes on April 16 from 3-6 p.m.
They’ll have reps here with full-size runs and they will allow people to try on shoes and even take them for a test run outside.
Afterward, they’re doing a mini fun run to one of the local breweries downtown.
Homestead 1909
Homestead 1909, from the owners of Tracy’s Family Diner, opens April 22 from 4-9 p.m. at 112 Central Ave inside Annie’s Tap House.
Their menu includes smash burgers, flatbread pizza, sandwiches and wraps, shareables, salads and more.
The Boardroom
The Boardroom by All The Things Charcuterie is opening this weekend at 122 Central Ave.
They’ll be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 10 and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 11.
The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers
The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers is changing their brick and mortar hours to be closed on Tuesdays.
“As many of you know, our online business is our bread and butter. We are so grateful to have a brick and mortar, but we are finding ourselves needing a weekday off to focus on all the things production, shipping and internet-related tasks,” according to the shop owners.
Online customer service will still be available on Tuesdays.
The downtown brick and mortar store will remain open Mondays, and Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Great Falls Hospital orthopedic clinic
The Great Falls Hospital‘s new OrthoNOW orthopedic walk-in clinic is now open at the Great Falls Clinic Specialty Center.
“Get same-day care for sprains, strains, fractures, sports injuries, and joint pain, no appointment needed. When injuries happen, specialized orthopedic care is now more convenient than ever. Walk in and let our expert team help you get back on your feet,” according to the clinic.
NWE project
NorthWestern Energy is replacing a natural gas pipeline installed in 1949 along 5th Street from 2nd Avenue North to 2nd Avenue South.
Construction is scheduled to begin April 8 and be completed around June 8.
The project is part of NWE’s ongoing effort to improve the safety and reliability of natural gas service in the area and includes replacement of a natural gas main pipeline located in the alley along the project route.
Traffic will be detoured during construction.
Customers who will experience brief, temporary interruptions of natural gas service will be notified directly by NWE.
The company is working to minimize disruptions and complete the project as efficiently as possible. Schedules may change depending on weather or other conditions.
Homebuyer Fair
NeighborWorks Great Falls’ fifth annual Homebuyer Fair is April 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University of Providence’s University Center.
The fair provides hopeful homebuyers the chance to learn more about the home purchase process in a fun and informative setting.
Free and open to the public, local realtors, lenders, home inspectors, and more will be present to share their knowledge and answer any questions.
County starts process to donate 10 acres for NWGF self-help build housing [2025]
A Homebuyer Education class will be held at the same location from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. so participants have the chance to experience the fair and obtain their Homebuyer Education Certificate.
This class is $25 and participants must register beforehand.
For more information, call NWGF at 406-761-5861 or email info@nwgf.org.
A full list of vendors and sponsors for the Homebuyer Fair is here.
Author event
Montana poet Gabriel Furshong will be reading from his award-winning collection, Surrounding the Country a Chasm, on April 14 at 6 p.m. at Cassiopeia Books.
Glass Menagerie
The Great Falls Theatre Company presents its spring show, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams later this month at the University of Providence Theatre, 1301 20th St. S.
The play, first performed in 1944, became one of the most famous plays of the modern theatre with timeless themes of balancing responsibility, longing for more, and family dynamics that are just as relevant to today’s audience as when first performed, according to GFTC.
“Williams’ drama of great tenderness, charm, and beauty is sure to entertain and inspire all,” according to GFTC.
The play centers on Amanda Wingfield, a “faded remnant of Southern gentility, living in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son Tom and daughter Laura. Although shattered by her husband’s abandonment, she focuses on securing their futures. Amanda collides with her children’s dreams and ambitions as attentions turn to securing a suitor for Laura, the fragile balance of the family’s dynamic begins to crack.”
Great Falls Theatre Company opens It’s a Wonderful Life on Dec. 11 [2025]
The play is about 2.5 hours with one intermission.
Advanced tickets are highly recommended and available online. A limited number of tickets are available in person one hour before the performance, subject to availability.
General admission tickets are $17.
The Great Falls Theatre Company was founded in 2021 and is dedicated to providing quality arts opportunities for all.
Recent productions include Fiddler on the Roof, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Music Man and Charlie Brown Christmas.
Show times are:
- April 23 at 7 p.m.
- April 24 at 7 p.m.
- April 25 at 2 p.m.
- April 25 at 7 p.m.
Stargazing at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park
First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park invites visitors to a special nighttime program on April 18, featuring traditional Blackfeet star stories with an open stargazing experience.
This free event offers an opportunity to explore the night sky while learning the cultural significance of the stars seen through the eyes and stories of Indigenous knowledge keepers.
The evening will begin at 8:30 p.m. with traditional Blackfeet star stories, which will take place in the park’s amphitheater located just steps from the visitor center.
A cultural presenter from the Blackfeet Nation will share traditional stories that highlight the deep connections between Blackfeet people and the star stories passed down through generations—stories that reflect relationships, seasons, teachings, and the natural world.
Following the storytelling, a celestial viewing session led by park staff will help guests identify prominent constellations, planets, and spring sky features.
Weather permitting, the Open Night Sky/Star Viewing will run from 8:30-10:30 p.m.
This is a great time to bring your own telescope or binoculars to the park and enjoy the brilliant night sky far from the lights of Great Falls. The park will also have three telescopes available for visitor use.
Refreshments will be provided inside the park’s multipurpose room.
The Open Night Sky/Star Viewing is weather dependent; however, in case of inclement weather, the Blackfeet Star Stories program will be moved indoors.
For information on upcoming events, contact the park at 406-866-2217 or check out the Region 4 Facebook page.
The park is located 3.5 miles north of Ulm, just off Interstate 15 at exit 270.
Missouri Breaks
Rangers with the Bureau of Land Management’s Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center invite area educators and interested groups to schedule a free ranger-led presentation in either their classroom or as part of a field trip to the Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center.
Teachers from area schools, homeschool co-ops, and youth organizations can select from a wide variety of ranger-led programs:
Classroom Programs
Designed for grades 2-5, these programs fit into a 50-minute ranger visit to your classroom:
- Meet the Missouri. Paddles up! Take a virtual float trip down remote stretches of the Upper Missouri River – places normally seen only on multi‑day expeditions.
- All About Animals. Discover the animals that call the monument home, how they survive in this environment, and the signs they leave behind.
- Adaptational Artistry. Investigate bird adaptations – how their bodies and skulls help them thrive – and use your new knowledge to design a bird of your own.
- Sum of the Parts. Create a fictional riverfront property along the Missouri and explore how human actions shape the natural world.
School Field Trips
Based at the Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center, two-hour-long field trips are designed for grades 2-5, with various expansion options:
- Fire on the Monument. Explore how forest and grassland fires shape ecosystems in the monument and across Montana, and how fire specialists work to manage them.
- Let’s Get Batty. Discover what makes bats unique among mammals and learn how disease threatens their populations.
- Migration Headache. Spread your wings and examine the natural and human‑made hazards birds encounter during migration.
- Must Cultures Collide? Compare the lifeways of the Nez Perce Tribe and Euro‑American homesteaders and soldiers in the 1800s. Briefly investigate the causes and impacts of the Nez Perce War within the monument’s boundaries.
Contact monument staff to schedule a classroom visit or field trip.
Check the monument’s education page or call 406-622-4000 for more information.
Sunday Sampler
The Great Falls Museums Consortium is holding its annual Sunday Sampler on April 12 from noon to 4 p.m.
Admission to all twelve museums is free.
Participating museums located in Great Falls include:
- C.M. Russell Museum
- Galerie Trinitas at the University of Providence
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center
- Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum
- Montana Museum of Railroad History
- Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art
- The History Museum and Research Center
- Great Falls Public Library/Montana Room
- SPARK! Children’s Museum of Montana
- Ursuline Centre
Head south on I-15 to visit the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park near Ulm or drive west on Highway 200 to visit historic Fort Shaw, which the Sun River Valley Historical Society will have open for tours.
Families and friends who visit three or more museums are encouraged to join the Consortium Scavenger Hunt and be eligible to win prizes.
Sunday Sampler scavenger hunt “passports” can be picked up at the first museum visited during the event.
To play, participants need to visit at least three museums and, at each museum, have their flyer stamped and correctly answer the scavenger hunt questions on the back of the flyer.
Completed flyers can be turned in at the last museum visited to be entered in a series of drawings; winners will be contacted the following week.
The Great Falls Museums Consortium is an association of local museums, educational and interpretive centers that exists to promote collaborative programming and marketing to increase awareness and appreciation of local cultural opportunities.
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Auto Parts Swap Meet
The 56th annual Great Falls Auto Parts Swap Meet is April 24-25 at the Heritage Building in Montana Expo Park.
Started in 1970, the event has morphed from a few car parts in the back end of a pick-up truck or trailer, to filling the Heritage Building and surrounding property with thousands of hard-to-find parts for antique, vintage, hot rods, muscle cars, trucks and motorcycles.
Exhibitors bring vintage clothing, tools, toys, license places, collectable signs and posters of automotive products.
It’s not surprising to find a few vintage cars, trucks and trailers for sale.
The event is staffed and organized by the Skunk Wagon Antique Car Club, Altered Classics Car Club, Other Guys Cruisin’ Association and Great Falls Motorsports.
This year’s event is
- April 24, noon to 7 p.m.
- April 25, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is $5 to attend both days. Children 12 and under are free.
Second Saturday at The History Museum
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’s Ozark Club event room for Second Saturday on April 11.
This free admission program begins at 1 p.m.
Fort Benton wins Montana Madness Competition
After more than 13,000 votes cast across four rounds of competition, Montanans have spoken: Fort Benton is the state’s Best Place. The small town on the Missouri River, long known as the “Birthplace of Montana,” claimed the championship of Montana Madness, the Montana Historical Society‘s March Madness-style bracket competition featuring 16 of the state’s most significant historic sites.
Fort Benton defeated First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park in the championship round, capturing more than two-thirds of the final vote.
Entering the bracket as the fourth seed, Fort Benton navigated a competitive field that included Going-to-the-Sun Road, Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, and Bearcreek before reaching the final. The top four finishers were Fort Benton, First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park, Going-to-the-Sun Road, and Pictograph Cave State Park, according to MTHS.
Founded in 1846 as the fur trade shifted from beaver pelts to buffalo robes, Fort Benton served as a trading post, military fort, and center for the distribution of Indian annuities. It was also the head of navigation on the Missouri River — the point beyond which steamboats could not travel — with the first steamboat arriving in 1860. For two decades, nearly everything and everyone entering Montana passed through Fort Benton.
Despite the arrival of railroads in the early 1880s which diminished the town’s role as the territory’s primary transportation hub, Fort Benton’s remarkable story continued to be written. Its characters, its landscapes, and its place at the origin of Montana’s story as a state continue to draw residents and visitors today.
The 16 competitors in Montana Madness were drawn from A History of Montana in 101 Places, the most recent book from MTHS Press. To learn more about Fort Benton and the other sites that competed in this year’s bracket, the book is available through the society’s gift shop.
Lewis and Clark Center presentation
Author and historian Shannon Kelly will present a new program, “Our Dog: The Life and Times of Seaman, the Newfoundland with Lewis and Clark,” at 7 p.m. April 14 at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.
The program is free and open to the public with a reception beforehand at 6:30 p.m.
Meriwether Lewis’s Newfoundland dog Seaman has become one of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s most recognizable members.
Kelly will explore Seaman’s documented life, his cultural depiction over the centuries, and how 20th century historians’ understanding of his name evolved. She will also offer a brief glimpse into the history of dogs in North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and the Newfoundland’s development. The program includes a real “Newfie” on site as an “ambassadog” for the modern breed.
Kelly is an associate editor for the Montana Historical Society’s Montana: The Magazine of Western History and currently serves on the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance Board of Directors.
She has worked at the North Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center/ Fort Mandan State Historic Site, and Pompeys Pillar National Monument and continues to deliver interpretive presentations.
Her forthcoming book on the expedition’s winters is in its early editing stages.
Kelly has a B.A. in History and minors in Native American Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Idaho and a M.A. in Public History from Colorado State University. She is also an NAI Certified Interpretive Guide.
Kelly’s program is part of the Ida Johnson Speaker Series and is sponsored by the Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance.
For more information contact the interpretive center at 406-727- 8733.
Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation Launches First Wilderness 101 Family Campout
The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation is hosting its Wilderness 101 Family Campout on June 26-28.
This educational weekend event is designed to help families build confidence, skills and connection in the great outdoors.
Hosted in a comfortable front-country setting, the campout offers an accessible introduction to exploring the iconic Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Northwest Montana, also known as “the Bob.”
This family-friendly experience invites participants of all backgrounds and experience levels to enjoy hands-on learning and outdoor fun in a welcoming community.
Whether you’re brand new to camping or looking to expand your outdoor knowledge, the Wilderness 101 Family Campout provides a supportive environment to learn and explore.
Families of all kinds are encouraged to apply – traditional, chosen, multi-generational and everything in between.
The event is open to participants ages 6 to 99+.
The campout will take place at the Monture Guard Station in the foothills of the Bob near Ovando.
Throughout the weekend, experienced instructors will lead engaging workshops and interactive stations covering essential wilderness skills, including:
- Leave No Trace: learn the seven principles to help protect natural spaces
- planning and preparation: gain practical skills for packing, navigation, and safety
- flora and fauna: discover the plants and wildlife that call “The Bob” home
- pack stock 101: explore the role of horses and mules in wilderness stewardship
- history and values: Understand the heritage and importance of wilderness preservation
The foundation will provide all meals for the weekend, starting with dinner on Friday through lunch on Sunday.
Group camping gear, including cooking supplies, water filtration and safety equipment, is also provided.
Participants are responsible for personal camping gear, with a full packing list provided upon registration.
A gear library is available, and camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads) can be provided for participants who need it. Scholarships are also available to ensure access for all families.
The weekend is free for families to attend but requires a $100 refundable deposit per family (up to six people) to secure your spot. Space is limited and families are encouraged to apply early.
More information and applications are here, or contact BMWF at 406-387-3808 or trails@bmwf.org.
T-Mobile expands coverage
T-Mobile continues to invest in its 5G network with the addition of two new cell sites in Great Falls, strengthening coverage and capacity at Malmstrom Air Force Base and along Highway 87 and 89.
The new sites deliver 5G Extended Range and Ultra Capacity service, providing increased coverage, higher capacity, and faster data speeds for residents, businesses, first responders and military members.
They are two of 27 sites T-Mobile has built or upgraded in Great Falls since 2024.
The enhancements in Great Falls are part of T-Mobile’s broader network investment strategy across Montana.
Since 2024, the company has invested more than $56 million statewide, adding 24 new cell sites, and upgrading 331 sites, including upgrades to Grizzly Stadium at the University of Montana and Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, reinforcing its long-term commitment to delivering high-performance wireless service in communities of all sizes.
To learn more about coverage in the area, visit T-Mobile’s map here.
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