Colter Falls, also Coulter Falls, (4.3m) waterfall, nearly 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) in width, part of the Great Falls of the Missouri, on the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 in north-central Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. Downstream of Colter Falls lies Rainbow Falls

Rainbow Falls (Missouri River)

Rainbow Falls is a waterfall on the Missouri River in Great Falls, Montana, just upstream from Crooked Falls and downstream from Colter Falls and Rainbow Dam. It is 47 feet high and 1,320 feet wide. The waterfall is part of the five Great Falls of the Missouri...

, and upstream is Black Eagle Falls. The Lewis and Clark Expedition

Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...

 was known to discover Westslope cutthroat trout

Westslope cutthroat trout

The westslope cutthroat trout , also known as the blackspotted cutthroat, is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout and is a freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. The cutthroat is the Montana state fish...

 at the base of the falls. The falls is now flooded in the impoundment behind Rainbow Dam

Rainbow Dam

Rainbow Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Missouri River, high and long, located six miles northeast of Great Falls in the U.S. state of Montana and just upstream of Rainbow Falls, a 45 ft waterfall that is the third of the five Great Falls of the Missouri. The dam, built in 1910, generates...

. As Rainbow Dam's reservoir is a run-of-the-river reservoir, it rarely is emptied, so the falls is rarely seen even in extreme drought. The falls was named by Paris Gibson

Paris Gibson

Paris Gibson was an American entrepreneur and politician.Gibson was born in Brownfield, Maine. An 1851 graduate of Bowdoin College, he served as a member of the Montana State Senate and as a Democratic member of the United States Senate between 1901 and 1905.-Career:In 1853 he was elected to the...

, founder of the city of Great Falls, Montana

Great Falls, Montana

Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...

, while they were not named by Lewis and Clark, who measured it at "6 feet 7 inches".