Business View Magazine | January 2020

148 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 G reat Falls, Montana derives its name from the famed set of five waterfalls that presented such a formidable obstacle to Lewis and Clark’s 1804 river expedition westward, out to the Pacific Coast. Today, it’s the third largest city in the State, home to the Lewis & Clark National Trail Interpretive Center, the C.M. Russell Museum Complex (displaying the work “Cowboy Artist” Charlie Russell), and adjacent to Malmstrom Airforce Base. It’s also the site of the Great Falls International Airport, a public/military airport established in 1928 with a long-living history of its own. “The airport pre-dates World War II, but it had a pretty substantial growth spurt during the war,” says John Faulkner, Great Falls International Airport Director. “This is where the Ferrying Group sent the Russia- bound airplanes from. The Airport hosted an Airlift Wing from the Army Corps, as well as a Russian contingent that inspected the planes before they headed up to Alaska, and then onto Russia. A lot of the infrastructure that the Airport had in its early days was left over from that program.” It’s estimated that more than 7,500 bombers and fighter aircraft passed through Great