Pompey's Pillar
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- Things to See, Historical Markers/Interpretive Sign, Historic Sites
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- General info
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Located 30 miles east of Billings.
How many times have you traveled somewhere and thought about who had been there before? Pompeys Pillar is like a sandstone history book that reads like a who’s who of western frontier history. Look on the rockface for the remains of animal drawings created by people who used the area for rendezvous, campsites, and hunting.
Pompey’s Pillar National Historic Landmark contains exceptional cultural, recreational, and wildlife values. It represents the legacy of the early West and its development. At the Pillar, there is evidence of Native Americans, early explorers, fur trappers, the U.S. Cavalry, railroad development, and early homesteaders, many of whom left their history embedded in this sandstone pillar. Captain William Clark, his guide, Sacagawea, her 18-month old son (nicknamed “Pompey”), and a crew of 11 men stopped near the 200-foot-high rock outcropping on the return leg of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
On July 25, 1806, Clark carved his signature and the date in the rock and recorded doing so in his journal. “I marked my name and the day of the month and year,” wrote Captain William Clark in his journal on Friday, July 25,
Pompey's Pillar