Giant Springs is a large first-magnitude spring located near

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

and is the central feature of Giant Springs State Park. Its water has a constant temperature of and originates from snowmelt in the Little Belt Mountains, away. According to chlorofluorocarbon dating, the water takes about 3,000 years to travel underground before returning to the surface at the springs. Giant Springs is formed by an opening in a part of the Madison aquifer, a vast

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

underlying 5 U.S. States and 3 Canadian Provinces. The conduit between the mountains and the spring is the geological

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ...

found in parts of the northwest United States called the Madison Limestone. Although some of the underground water from the Little Belt Mountains escapes to form Giant Springs, some stays underground and continues flowing, joining sources from

losing stream A losing stream, disappearing stream, influent stream or sinking river is a stream or river that loses water as it flows downstream. The water infiltrates into the ground recharging the local groundwater, because the water table is below the bo ...

s in the Black Hills, Big Horn Mountains and other areas. The aquifer eventually surfaces in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Giant Springs has an average discharge of of water per second or 150 million gallons per day. Giant Springs Trout 16

The spring outlet is located in Giant Springs State Park, just downstream and northeast of

on the east bank of the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. Giant Springs was first described by

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

during their exploration of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

in 1805. Before that, the Blackfeet people utilized the springs as an easy-to-access water source in the winter. The springs were mostly ignored by settlers until 1884 when the town of Great Falls was established and the springs became the place for Sunday recreational activities. In the mid-1970s the park was established as a Montana State Park. Today, some of the spring water is bottled annually for human consumption and some of the discharge is used for a

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

hatchery A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish, poultry or even turtles. It may be used for ''ex situ'' conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled ...

. The hatchery is a Montana state trout hatchery named Giant Springs Trout Hatchery and raises mostly Rainbow Trout. The spring serves as the headwaters of the -long Roe River, once listed as the shortest river in the world according to

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

. The river flows into the

which is near the spring and borders its state park. Giant Springs07

References

External links

*
State of Montana: Official Giant Springs State Park websiteYoutube: Giant Springs 1

Youtube: Giant Springs 2

Youtube: Giant Springs 3
{{Protected Areas of Montana Springs of Montana State parks of Montana Great Falls, Montana Landforms of Cascade County, Montana Protected areas of Cascade County, Montana Tourist attractions in Great Falls, Montana

See also

References

External links