The Lewis and Clark Expedition

A Personal Experience

by Jack C. High

Exploration has been as much a passion as anything else in my life so it was only natural that I would be drawn to the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806). Even when I knew nothing about it, I would see a book about the expedition in a bookstore and would be drawn to it. But I put off reading about it for years until one hot summer day when driving Interstate 94 about 28 miles east of Billings, Montana my daughter caught a glimpse of a road sign which said "Pompey's Pillar" and yelled out from the back seat, "Hey Dad! That's in the book I'm reading about Sacajawea. Let's stop and take a look." And, we did.

Pompey's Pillar is a natural rock tower some 120 feet tall and 350 feet in diameter that sits about 300 feet south of the Yellowstone River. Clark named the mammoth rock after Sacajawea's infant son, Jean Baptiste. He also etched his own name into the sandstone face of the rock, and that inscription is reported to be the only surviving physical evidence known to remain along the explorers' route that can be indisputable associated with the expedition.

Standing atop that rock ignited my imagination and I was hooked. I subsequently began a study of the expedition, developed a modest book collection and visited many expedition sites. That summer afternoon visit to Pompey's Piller also lit a fire within to float the Yellowstone River. Researching such a trip led me instead to floating the Upper Missouri River where I had an opportunity to experience first hand a 120-mile section of the Lewis and Clark Trail which has mostly withstood the inroads of civilization and today remains virtually unchanged since first explored by members of the the 1804-1806 expedition.

Lewis and Clark Links

• Bibliography

• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Incorporated
• Map of the Upper Missouri River
• Pompey's Pillar
• President Thomas Jefferson's Letter to Meriwether Lewis
• A Roster of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Sacajawea.