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The current town of Cascade, in Cascade County, Montana, was created out of a few earlier communities. Across the Missouri River from the town center, a small town known as The Mayflower developed, named for the Chestnut Valley freight and stage route. In 1879, a new settlement was formed by George Steele, which was known as Ulidia by 1880, and changed to Gorham in 1885, for Thomas Gorham, another store owner. The property was sold to James and Mary Erskine in 1886, and the town’s name was changed to St. Clair. That same year, the Montana Central, which later became the Great Northern Railway, began laying tracks from Great Falls on the west side of the river. forming a new railroad town known as Dodge, which had a post office operated by Thomas Gorham. Upon completion of the railroad, the town’s name was changed to Cascade, two months after Cascade County had been created. A bridge was constructed over the Missouri River in 1893, replacing the ferry, and business began moving from St. Clair to Cascade, and the St. Clair post office was closed. Cascade grew to include the former towns, and was incorporated in 1911. J. Robert Atkinson, the founder of the Braille Institute of America, moved to Cascade at the age of sixteen, where he was blinded in a gun accident. Other notable Cascade natives include Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, the first black woman to be employed by the U.S. Postal Service, as well as the artist, Charles Marion Russell. Steamboat Williams, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1914 and 1916, was born in Cascade. Accessed primarily by I-15, Cascade is southwest of Riverdale and Great Falls, and northeast of Craig and Wolf Creek.

 

 

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