Community Minded
In order to house on-site dam operators and their families, Montana Power Company built small communities, known as "operators camps", at their isolated hydroelectric facilities at Rainbow, Ryan and Morony dams. On-site operators were needed at the dams early in the century to provide round-the-clock monitoring and response to problems. Camps varied in size depending on the number of operators and supervisory personnel needed. The operator's camp at Rainbow Dam was located across the river from you, stretching from the dam to the powerhouse. Construction of the camps occurred from 1910 to the 1930's. As automation improved, camps at newer facilities such as Cochrane Dam, built in 1958, were not needed. The camps at Rainbow and Morony dams remained in existence for over 70 years. The camps at Ryan Dam is still used today by a small number of employees of PPL Montana, the current operator of the hydroelectric facilities in the Great Falls area. (Update: On the 17th of November 2014, Northwestern Energy purchased the dams from PPL Montana. With the purchase of the dams, more than half of Northwestern Energy's owned and contracted electric supply in Montana now comes from wind and water.)