Montana Story
Growing Up in Great Falls in the '80s
What the record backs up from a Great Falls decade: the stack came down in 1982, the Giants became the Dodgers in 1984, and the mall theater closed in 1989.
A decade is mostly personal, so this sticks to things the record backs up. Fill in the rest yourself.
1980 to 1982: the stack. Arco announced in October 1980 that it was closing its Montana operations, Black Eagle included. The Anaconda Co. smokestack came down on September 18, 1982, and the first blast left a sliver standing, the Great Falls Tribune reported years later. People across the river honked.
1984: the Giants become the Dodgers. The Pioneer League team in Great Falls had been the Great Falls Giants since 1969. In 1984 it became the Great Falls Dodgers and stayed that way through 2002, playing at what is now Centene Stadium. The Dodgers won league titles in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Wikipedia’s alumni list for those years includes Eric Karros in 1988 and Pedro Martinez and Raul Mondesi in 1990.
The mall. Holiday Village had Scheels (there since 1968), Montgomery Ward (since 1966), and Herberger’s and JCPenney, which moved into the old Hested’s and Buttreys Suburban spaces in 1976. The 796-seat Fox Holiday Theater, added in 1967, closed in January 1989. In November 1989 Buttrey-Osco announced it would close its mall store in early 1990.
Still around. Borrie’s is still serving in Black Eagle. The Sip ‘n Dip was already more than 20 years old by the end of the decade. The mermaids came later, in the mid-’90s.
Remember this place? Tell us what you remember.
Sources
Filed under: Growing Up Montana, High School Sports, Main Street
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