to portage around the Great Falls, an arduous task that took nearly a month. York, an African American slave owned by William Clark and who had participated in the Expedition, was the first black American to see the Great Falls. The Lewis and Clark Expedition made a number of discoveries near the Great Falls. On June 13, Silas Goodrich caught numerous Westslope cutthroat trout at the falls, the first time anyone in the expedition had seen these fish, and several samples were preserved which constituted the type specimens for the fish. The trout was subsequently given the scientific name Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi in honor of the expedition leaders. The Westslope cutthroat is now the "official state fish" of Montana. The explorers also collected the first samples of the gumbo evening primrose and western meadowlark at the Great Falls. On June 18, while reconnoitering the series of falls on the south side of the Missouri River with a group of five others, William Clark discovered Giant Springs, which he correctly judged to be the largest spring in the world. He was the first white person to see the springs, and the first white person to see the falls from the south side of the Missouri. Meriwether Lewis revisited the Great Falls on July 11, 1806, as the Corps of Discovery returned east. Lewis and nine men stopped at the Great Falls with the intention of exploring the Marias River and discovering its source. But during the night, Indians stole half the party's 17 horses, forcing three of the men to stay behind. Settlement of the area Following the return passage of Lewis and Clark in 1805/06 there is no record of any white man visiting the Great Falls of the Missouri until explorer and trapper Jim Bridger reached them in 1822. White people next visited the Great Falls when Bridger and Major Andrew Henry led a fur-trading expedition there in April 1823 (and were attacked by Blackfeet Indians while camping at the site). British explorer Alexander Ross trapped around the Great Falls in 1824. In 1838, a mapping expedition sent by the U.S. federal government and guided by Bridger spent four years in the area. Margaret Harkness Woodman became first white woman to see the Great Falls in 1862. The first permanent settlement near the Great Falls was Fort Benton, established in 1846 about downstream from the Great Falls. The Great