Historic Markers Explorer

On the day he reached the "two forks" Lewis wrote in his journal, "I do not believe that the world can furnish an example of a river running to the extent which the Missouri and Jefferson's rivers do through such a mountainous country and at the same time so navigable as they are".

Lewis was describing a landscape that has been millions of years in the making! Over that time, the Earth's crust in this area has been pulled apart to form a landscape of towering mountains and broad valleys.

The placid rivers that follow these valleys made the notion of a Northwest Passage a possibility. Unfortunately for the Corps of Discovery, the geology to the west of the Great Divide produced deep canyons with raging rivers, ending all hopes for a safe "communication across the continent by water."

The Geological Time Scale (not shown to scale)

Divisions of geological time were defined in the 19th Century by major changes in the fossil record.

Most of the boundaries are marked by worldwide extinction events.

Numerical dates were added in the 20th Century using modern rock-dating techniques.

Precambrian 4500 million years ago: Earth began. Formation of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Paleozoic Era 542 million years ago Deposition of sedimentary rocks.

Mesozoic Era 250 million years ago Deposition of sedimentary rocks, folding and thrust faulting.

Cenozoic Era 66 million years ago Deposition of sedimentary and volcanic rock, extension of the Earth's crust and formation of the Red Rock Valley and Tendoy Mountains.

Making of the Landscape

On August 17, 1805, the historic meeting of cultures took place in this valley. The valley started forming about 4.0 million years ago as extension of the Earth's crust produced a fault that dropped the Red Rock Valley down and uplifted the adjacent Tendoy Mountains. Although this fault is considered by geologist to be active, it last ruptured the ground surface some 3,000 years ago. Fortunately for the Corps of Discovery, there was no activity on this fault on August 17, 1805.

Erected by Reclamation, University of Montana, Western.

When Captain Meriwether Lewis and his men arrived in the Jefferson River Valley in August 1805, they explored the tributaries of the Jefferson River (today's Beaverhead River), which was named after President Thomas Jefferson. They named it tributaries Philanthrophy and Wisdom, in homage of the President's character. These rivers are now referred as the Ruby and Big Hole respectively.

During exploration, Captain Lewis made a broad loop south of present day Twin Bridges, observing the Ruby and Beaverhead Rivers. He walked about 15 miles up the Big Hole River before returning to his men. After this journey, he was convinced that the Jefferson River was he route to travel.

Erected by Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

President Thomas Jefferson's passion for botany fueled his instructions to Meriwether Lewis to notice "the soil and face of the country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially those not in the U.S. ...the date at which particular plants put forth or lose their flowers or leaf." During the expedition Meriwether Lewis and William Clark collected 178 plants new to science. Most of these plants are now found at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"observe the Silkgrass, Sunflower & Wild indigo all in blume." -- William Clark July 16, 1806

Indians taught the explorers to forage for plant berries and roots.

Several "new" plants were named for Meriwether Lewis & William Clark.

Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) - Also known as Juneberry or Sarvisberry.

Silver Buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea)

Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) - Montana state tree. Indians burned the center of these tree to make canoes.

Cottonwood (Populus app.) - These lofty trees saved the day throughout the expedition by providing shade, shelter, furniture, wagon wheels, dugout canoes, and firewood.

Blue Flax (Linum lewisii)

Lewis' Monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii)

Bitterroot (Lewisia redivide) - Montana's state flower was named for Meriwether Lewis. The specimen Lewis collected was taken to Philadelphia by horse, boat, and stagecoach.

Golden Currant (Ribes anreum) - "I found great quantities of the Purple, yellow & black currents ripe. they were of an excellent flavor. I think the purple Superior to any I have ever tasted." -- William Clark July 18 1806

Chokecherry (prunus Virginian) - The expedition used this wood to make ax handles.

Camas Lily (Camassia quomash)

Mockorange (Philadelphus lewisii)

Elkhorns (Clarkia pulchella) - Noted for its petals, which resemble an elk's antlers.

Erected by Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

This statue commemorates Sacajawea, whose loyalty, courage and devotion were instrumental in the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806.

Holding her infant son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (nicknamed "Pomp" by Capt. Wm. Clark), she sits astride a horse, pausing to drink from the waters of the Yellowstone River. The day is July 15, 1806, Clark and several members of the Corps of Discovery are headed downstream to rendezvous with Meriwether Lewis and the remainder of the explorers.

Sacajawea was instrumental to the success of the expedition for a variety of skills and attributes that she embodied. She was an interpreter for her Shoshone people and was able to negotiate and obtain horses from them. She knew of native food sources and local geography. As a woman, her presence among the armed soldiers signaled a peaceful intent to the tribes which the Corps encountered. Carrying an infant to the Pacific and back, she extended a calming influence as a wife, mother, sister, and friend.

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over every aspect of her life, from the spelling of her name (Sacagawea and Sakakawea), the origins of her ancestors, and her demise. This much is certain, the Sacajawea of American culture and mythology is a larger-than-life, and she has in two hundred years outshone every other member of the expedition with the possible exceptions of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

This teenager has become a unique blend of legend, historical fact, myth, iconography and multicultural embrace. Upon the expedition's departure from her Mandan Village in North Dakota and heading back to St. Louis, William Clark wrote a remarkable letter to her husband Toussaint Charbonneau "you woman who accompanied you that long dangerous fatiguing route to the Pacific Ocean and back deserves greater reward for her attention and service on the route than we had in our power to give her at the Mandan...Aug. 20, 1806"

May her spirit continue to embrace us, to flow with the waters of the Yellowstone, and be permanently etched in the history of his country.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through this canyon of "nearly perpendicular rocks" during its journey up the Missouri in July 1805. Although the men grumbled about mosquitoes and prickly pear cactus, the Corps of Discovery was clearly impressed by the Adel Mountain volcanics, the eroded remains of a pile of volcanic rocks more than 40 miles long and 20 miles wide. The volcanics consisted mostly of fragments–blocks, cinders, ash–from violent, explosive eruptions that played magma out of the earth and into the air. The eruptions occurred about 75 million years ago and continued for several million years.

Erosion has exposed some of the underground "plumbing" for the volcanic center. Magma rose up along cracks and had enough pressure to push the walls of cracks apart for tens of feet, forming dikes. At several places in the canyon, you'll notice the dark ridges–dikes–going up the mountainsides. Some magma squirted in along the bottom of the pile of volcanics forming horizontal intrusions called laccoliths. Square Butte, Shaw Butte, and Cascade Butte are prominent laccoliths with high, vertical cliffs that can be seen between Ulm and Cascade. This great eruption of magma occurred on the Great Falls Tectonic Zone–a collision zone between two continental plates which collided more than a billion years ago. It left a zone of weakness that resulted in the Adel Mountain Volcanics.

Geo-Activity:

Before you stopped at this rest area, did you notice the many vertical dikes. At Milepost 250 across the Missouri River to the left they looked like all stone walls going up the mountainside. Now look at the cliff in back of the rest area and see if you can see the vertical lines in the cliff face. Several dikes are visible if you look closely.

Geo-Facts:

• All the rocks visible from the rest area are part of the Adel Mountain Volcanics.

• Explosive ash falls are one way that fossils are preserved. The Two Medicine Formation, which underlies the Adel Mountain Volcanics and is a few million years old, contains volcanic rocks and many dinosaur fossils.

• The old highway through this portion of the Missouri River Canyon was constructed in the 1930s and provided the first direct road connection between Helena and Great Falls.

Native Americans frequently camped in this area on their way to and from the buffalo hunting grounds. The rugged landscape, however, largely prevented the non-Indian settlement of the area until late in the 19th century. Montana's first modern road-builder, John Mullan, skirted the mountains for a route far to the northwest. The canyon's residents were mostly cattle ranchers who sold their animals in Helena or Great Falls. The arrival of the Montana Central Railroad in 1887 did much to open this region to settlement, but it was not until the early 1930s that a modern paved highway connected Helena and Great Falls through this area. U.S. Highway 91 wound its way along the Missouri River through the volcanic outcrops of the canyon, crossing the river over two large steel truss bridges that still carry traffic in the vicinity of Hardy and Wolf Creek. Though bypassed by Interstate 15 in the 1960s, old U.S. 91 provides motorists a unique opportunity to experience a Great Depression era road through one of the most spectacular landscapes in Montana.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

In 1806, Captain William Clark and his crew traveled through here on horseback moving quickly on their return trip to St. Louis. Arriving at present day Jackson Hot Springs in the afternoon of July 7th, they stopped to experiment with cooking in the water that Clark later wrote "bubbers with heat." That night, camped less than a mile east of where you stand now, Clark noted in his journal that "this butifull extensive valley" is "extreemly fertile" - and he called it "the hot spring Vally." French trappers referred to it as the "Big Hole," their term for a large mountain-surrounded valley - and the name stuck.

Ranching first began in this area in the mid-1800s, in support of wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. For years thereafter, ranchers who lived elsewhere turned their cattle loose to graze these lands - and when the first person intending to live here arrived he found some 27,000 cattle already feeding in the Big Hole Valley. Ranchers learned that the natural rangelands here offered superb nutrition for cattle - grass-fed animals from this valley fetched the same high prices in midwestern markets as did grain-fattened cattle from other parts of the county. The Big Hole earned the nickname "Land of 10,000 Hay Stacks" because of the superiority of is native grasses - and because here, where the 'beaver slide' was first developed as a method of stacking hay, heaps of it looked like giant loaves of bread became a year-round sight.

Erected by Montana State University (Bozeman), Bureau of Land Management, Montana Stockgrowers Association.

Few points along the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition have the significance of this site, now beneath the waters of Clark Canyon Reservoir. Noted on their maps as "Fortunate Camp", the Lewis and Clark Expedition journeyed here hoping to obtain horses from Sacagawea's people, the Lemhi Shoshoni.

Following an Indian trail in advance of the main party, Captain Lewis first reached this site on August 10, 1805. Two days later, he crossed the Continental Divide west of here, and met the Lemhi Shoshoni. Although suspicious of the white men, they returned with Lewis to meet the rest of the party, arriving back here on August 17, 1805. At the meeting, Sacajawea was reunited with brother, Chief Camehwait, whom she had not seen for five years.

Through her, Lewis and Clark negotiated for horses and a guide - critical for the expedition's journey across the mountains to the Columbia River drainage. In exchange, the Shoshoni were promised that future trade would include guns and ammunition - critical for their defense against enemy tribes.

In July 1806, Clark and his party returned here to retrieve canoes and supplies they had cached the previous year in preparation for the return trip down the Missouri River to St. Louis.

"...it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render us such aids as they had in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home. that such were their horses to transport our baggage without which we could not subsist and that a pilot to conduct us through the mountains was also necessary if we could not decend the river by water." -- Captain M. Lewis, August 17, 1805

Where is "Fortunate Camp"?

"immediately in the level plain between the forks and about 1/2 a mile distance from them stands a high rocky mountain, the base of which is surrounded by the level plain; it has a singular appearance." -- Captain M. Lewis, August 18, 1805

Today, this "singular mountain" forms the large island you see in front of you, marked on their map between the forks. The actual site of Camp Fortunate is now under water, half-way between this island and the dam. Look at the map for its symbol δ just before the forks to the left.

"We now found our camp just below the junction of the forks on the Lard. side in a level smooth bottom covered with fine terf of green-swoard." Captain M. Lewis, August 17, 1805

Erected by Montana Bureau of Reclamation.

"the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch (sic) of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless (sic) nights." - Meriwether Lewis, August 12, 1805

What's in a name?

In 1921, historians named this spring "Most Distant Fountain," identifying it as the source of water Meriwether Lewis referred to in his journal. Lewis described water "issuing from the base of a low hill" about 1/2 mile below Lemhi Pass.

Was Lewis writing about this spring? We may never really know.

Where Does the Water Come From?

Water from rain and snowmelt seeps into the ground until it meets a solid layer of rock or clay. It pools above these impermeable layers, forming an aquifer. Influenced by gravity, water in an aquifer flows back out to the surface, if it can find a path. It often follows fault lines or factories underground. When water reaches the surface, it appears as a spring.

Erected by Beaverhead-Deerlodge & Salmon-Chaillis National Forest.

In the Hellgate Treaty negotiations (1855), Xwetxxcln (Plenty Horses or chief Victor) and the Selíš people rebuffed efforts of US officials to get them to abandon the choice lands of their ancestral Bitterroot Valley. After Xwetxxcln died, settlers successfully lobbied President Grant to declare the Flathead Reservation "better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe" in 1872. Congress sent future President Garfield to arrange for the removal of the Selíš. Stmxé Owoxqeys (Claw of Small Grizzly or Chief Chariot) said the Bitterroot was where the bones of his ancestors were buried, and he would not leave, but his "x" mark was forged onto the Garfield agreement. More whites moved illegally onto Selíš lands, and pressures intensified with construction of the Missoula & Bitter Root Valley Railroad in 1888. In November 1889, faced with the worsening condition for his people, Stmxé Owoxqeys finally agreed to leave. The Selíš therefore planted no crops, but Congress delayed funding for removal for two years, pushing many people to the brink of starvation. Finally, in October 1891, General Henry Carrington and troops from Fort Missoula roughly pushed the tribe on the sad march north to the Reservation. The Government reneged on the promised aid for relocation, but the Selíš nevertheless managed to rebuild their lives in the Jocko Valley.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Glance out several hundreds feet across the meadow in front of you and you'll find an enclosed hot springs, bubbling with hot water and spewing out steam. On July 7, 1806, this "boiling hot spring" provided a late afternoon dinner stop for Captain William Clark, Sacagawea, and their return party as they crossed this "hot spring valley" en route to Camp Fortunate to retrieve the canoes and supplies they had cached the previous summer.

"...we arived at a Boiling Spring Situated about 100 paces from a large Easterly fork of the Small river which heads in the Snowey Mountains to the SE. & SW of the Springs. this Spring (15 yds in circumc, boils up all over the bottom which is Stoney) contains a very considerable quantity of water, and actually blubbers with heat for 20 paces below where it rises.. I directt Sergt. Pryor and John Shields to put each a piece of meat in the water of different Sises. the one about the Size of my 3 fingers Cooked dun in 25 minits the other much thicker was 32 minits before it became Sufficiently dun." - Captain W. Clark, July 7, 1806

A Well-Used Hot Springs

In 1833, fur trapper Warren Angus Ferris and his small company visited this site.

"The Indians" he wrote "have made a succession of little dams, from the upper end to the river; and one finds baths of every temperature, from boiling hot, to that of the river, which is too cold for bathing at any season."

Hot Springs & Big Hole Valley

These hot springs bear witness to the geothermic activity in the region. A fault system dropped the Big Hole Valley and raised the surrounding mountains. Fractured rock of the earth's crust allows water to percolate deep underground where it is heated and then rises to the surface as a hot springs.

Clark excerpt taken from: The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume Eight, Gary Mouton, Editor.

Ferris excerpt taken from: Life in the Rocky Mountains, Northland Press, 1983.

Erected by Camp Fortunate Chapter, Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation; Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

Before his death in 1896, pioneering Jewish businessman William Weinstein owned many lots, including this one, in Philipsburg. By 1902, his daughter Alice Weinstein Hannah owned the property and the one-story wooden dwelling that stood on the site, which she undoubtedly rented to local miners and their families. She sold the home in 1913 to Missoula resident Leanorah Damuth. Damuth lost the property for back taxes in 1923, and in 1927 Louada Smith purchased the lots and all improvements for $248.75. A divorced mother of four, Louada married miner John Flascher the following year. Soon thereafter, the family built this one-and-one-half-story, gable-front home, valued in 1930 at $2,400. The home originally sported full-width front and rear porches, both of which were later enclosed.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

On August 10, 1983 a prairie fire swept over the battlefield, burning nearly 600 acres of dense, thick vegetation. In May and June of 1984 the National Park Service began an unprecedented systematic archeological survey of the Custer Battlefield. Led by archeologists Dr. Douglas D. Scott, NPS, and Dr. Richard A. Fox, Jr., formerly of the University of Calgary, archeologists and volunteers surveyed the battlefield for five weeks locating historical evidence from the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Among the 1,159 artifacts recovered were iron arrow heads, bullets, cartridges, buttons, coins, soldier skeletal remains, boots, military and horse equipment, and personal items of soldiers and warriors. Analysis of the artifacts and remains are important links to the past and provide important clues on the various weapons, tactics, equipment, and movements during the battle. Forensic examination of 7th Cavalry skeletal remains help to humanize the cavalrymen who until now, were just mere statistics and reveals important clues for their identification, height, age, health, and how they died.

Archeological evidence, used in conjunction with accounts of battle participants, placement of soldier bodies, and 7th Cavalry and warrior markers, helps us to reconstruct the battle. Additional archeological surveys were conducted here and on adjacent lands in 1985, 1989, 1991, 1994 & 1999, and will likely continue in the future.

Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.