For may years, the campsite known as Travelers’ Rest was thought to be located at the confluence of today’s Lolo Creek and the Bitterroot River (1 1/2 miles east of where you now stand). It wasn’t until 1996 that members of the Travelers’ Rest Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation began to suspect the campsite was more likely in this immediate area.

Focusing his research on the area just south of Lolo Creek, historical archaeologist Dan Hall employed remote sensing equipment like metal detectors and magnetometers to identify several places where the magnetic properties of the soil had been altered. The archaeological team excavated these “anomalies” in the summer of 2002 and found evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s cookfire and latrine.

When the soil from the latrine was analyzed, it revealed mercury vapor, residue from Dr. Rush’s Thunderbolts, a powerful purgative that was commonly prescribed to ailing members of the expedition. The physical evidence discovered here is accepted as proof that this is the location of the Corps of Discovery’s campsite. Based on these findings, the National

Park Service moved the boundaries of the Travelers’ Rest National Historic Landmark to this site in 2006.

Excavation at the site revealed charcoal (carbon dated to the time of the Expedition), a military uniform button, one blue glass trading bead and a spilled piece of lead (sourced to a region of Kentucky that was producing led of the military during the time Meriwether Lewis was making preparations for the epic journey).

Erected by Montana State Parks, National Park Service, Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association.