Worked at Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center as historic and cultural researcher for ten years. I have heard this many many many times at the Center, Woodland Estates, and the First People's Jump. It occurs as the Bloods told me at the mouth of the Medicine River (the Sun today). The Medicine River is called that for the great noise. People would still come down from Canada just to hear the noise. I lived at Woodland Estates for 18 years and have heard it there the most. Noise does not come from the mountains at all. Sounds just like artillery at a distance. Yes, I spent three years in artillery. It can easily be discounted as the trains cars pulling out or a sonic boom. If you are aware of it, it is very predictable from the same location and the same sound. Source of the noise is right where the Sun River dumps into the Missouri River. This is the beginning of the rise of the Sweetgrass Arch underground that reaches its highest elevation right at the railroad bridge across the Missouri River by the Tribune Building. This is a special place called Rocky Bottom Crossing by the Blackfeet because it was one of the few places the Missouri could be crossed on foot. It does have many rocks. The Sweetgrass Arch drops in elevation from there and is the firm rock base to all the falls, cascades, and dams until the mouth of Belt Creek. One does not need a windless night, but most evenings and nights are the best times to hear it. The rolling sound is relative to being a distance from the source. I have never heard the great noise at the source.
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