Where the River Meets the Rims

By editor

Billings, Yellowstone County, Montana

The rimrocks above Billings rise like ancient sentinels, their sandstone cliffs towering some 400 feet above the Yellowstone River valley below. These great, weathered walls are not merely the backdrop of a city but the enduring record of eons past, sculpted slowly by the persistent hand of the river that courses beneath. To stand upon these rims is to witness the dialogue between stone and water, time and change, all etched into the very landscape.

The Yellowstone River, winding its way through the valley, has carved this gorge over millions of years, a process that began long before the first footsteps of modern men or the flight of birds overhead. During the Pleistocene epoch, when glaciers dominated much of the northern hemisphere, the Yellowstone swelled with glacial meltwater, its volume many times greater than what we observe today. This torrent of water gouged the earth, eroding softer sediments and leaving behind the harder sandstone that composes the rimrocks.

These cliffs owe their durability to the Eagle Sandstone, a formation of fine-grained sand and silty mud cemented into rock some 70 to 80 million years ago. This sandstone, deposited in the offshore bars of an ancient inland sea, resisted the erosive forces that wore away the surrounding softer rock. The result is a striking landscape -- cliffs that tilt and fold, their ochre and tan hues catching the sunlight like the pages of a long-forgotten manuscript.

From this vantage, the view sweeps across the valley floor in a panorama that is both grand and intimate. To the south, the Beartooth Mountains rise sharply, their rugged peaks often dusted with snow, reaching toward the heavens. To the north, the Bull Mountains form a more subdued but no less compelling silhouette against the sky. Between these ranges lies the river valley, a ribbon of life and movement framed by the enduring stone.

In 1837, Crow Chief Arapooish spoke of this elevated perspective with words that capture its essence: "From the rim rocks can be obtained one of the most remarkable views of the city I have ever seen and I have spent the past several years traveling over the nation. At one's feet lies your snug little city, bright and above in the sunshine. Every detail can be seen distinctly." Though this particular observation was recorded by Reverend Dr. Aasgaard of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in 1924, it reflects a truth known to the Crow people for generations -- the rimrocks provide a commanding and clear view that embraces the entire valley, a natural lookout and a place of contemplation.

The Yellowstone River itself carries a name born of careful observation and early exploration. French fur traders called it La Roche Jaune, the River of the Yellow Rock, a nod to the distinctive coloration of the sandstone cliffs that flank its banks. The river traces a path of 678 miles, fed by the snowfall of the mountains surrounding Yellowstone National Park. Along its course, the river’s character shifts -- its water temperature, turbidity, and fish species change in response to the seasons and the landscape. Near Billings, the river begins a transformation, warming and widening into braided channels where cold water species like brown trout share the habitat with warmer water fish such as sauger.

The flow of the Yellowstone varies markedly throughout the year. In winter, it moves at a measured pace of about 2,500 cubic feet per second. But come late spring, when the snows melt and the river swells with floodwaters, its volume can surge beyond 25,000 cubic feet per second. This dynamic rhythm of the river continues to shape the valley, just as it has done for millennia.

The rimrocks not only define the geography but also the human story of Billings. The city grew up in the river valley because the river was there, offering water, transportation, and fertile land. The cliffs gave the city a distinctive skyline, a natural monument against which the life of the town unfolds. Visitors returning after years away often remarked on the city’s growth, yet noted with a kind of reverence that "the Rimrocks haven’t changed much." Such constancy amid human change speaks to the resilience of the land.

The geology of the area offers a window into a much older world. The Eagle Sandstone that forms the rimrocks was deposited in a vast inland sea that once covered much of what is now Montana. This sea teemed with marine life, and its sediments tell a story of shifting shorelines and changing climates over tens of millions of years. The sandstone layers tilt northward near Swords Park, where the rims lean toward Alkali Creek, hinting at the ancient tectonic forces that shaped the region.

The Crow people, who have long inhabited this land, understood the valley’s life and character in ways both practical and spiritual. As one Crow elder observed, "The Crow (Apsaalooke) Country is in exactly the right place. It has snowy mountains and sunny plains, all kinds of climates and good things for every season. When the summer heat scorches the prairies, you can draw up under the mountains, where the air is sweet and cool, the grass fresh, and the trout run in the streams." This knowledge of place, of the interplay between land and life, is as vital as the river itself.

To stand on the rimrocks today is to be part of a continuum -- a moment in time where the ancient past, the living present, and the unfolding future meet. The cliffs and the river form a landscape shaped by forces both slow and immense, yet also by the footsteps of those who have walked here, paused to survey the land, and found in it a source of sustenance and inspiration. The Yellowstone River and the rimrocks together compose the frame of Billings, a natural architecture written in stone and water.

As I gazed upon the valley from the rimrocks, I was reminded of the words of the naturalist George Bird Grinnell, who once wrote, "The rivers and mountains are the lifeblood of this country, and in their preservation lies the hope of the future." Here, where the river meets the rims, that lifeblood flows strong and ever-present, a force that has shaped the land and will continue to do so through the ages.