In a dynamic presentation last week, local historian Dr. Suzanne Waring treated us to a glimpse of Ira Myers, one of the pioneers who made a significant impact on the development of Great Falls as a city.

 

Born in Mansfield, Ohio, Myers clerked his way westward bit by bit, eventually catching the "gold fever" of 1859 and heading to the Pikes Peak area of Colorado. He was a community founder of Colorado City, a sheriff in Leadville, a prospector in the San Juan area, and a hotelier in Denver when he heard about gold in Bannack. He tried his hand in Bannack for a while and was part of the first stampede for gold in Alder Gulch, where Virginia City is today.

 

By 1879, he switched to the cattle business, but he had a good eye for other business opportunities as well. He headed up the company that constructed a ditch to carry water to the bench above Choteau. He also saw the potential in investing in firewood, hiring a crew to cut a stand on the Smith River and float it down to Fort Benton. Paris Gibson convinced him that his new town on the banks of the Missouri would be needing a lot of wood for construction and Ira Myers change his plans. With a partner named Thomas Wall, Myers set up the first sawmill in Great Falls, near what would one day become Oddfellows Park. He was later instrumental in bringing electricity and a public water system to the city.

 

Myers was apparently too busy to get married in his early years. At the age of 47, he married 30-year-old Catherine McGurk and the couple raised their two sons in their home at 317 Second Avenue North. He died in Great Falls in 1924 at the age of 85.

 

Rotarians had lots of questions for Suzanne, which the well-versed historian and educator handled with aplomb. Another gem of a resource in the Electric City!