Pompey's Pillar

Generations of tourists have climbed the rock to see the sweeping yellowstone Valley panorama that so stirred explorers Lewis and Clark in 1806. Hulking grain elevators now stand right across the road from this rock, called Pompeys Pillar, spewing dust into the air and disrupting the natural vista.

Traveling down the 670-mile-long (1,080-km) Yellowstone River, it would be hard to miss Pompeys Pillar—a great bulging outcrop of golden sandstone, standing more than 100 feet (30m) high on the south bank of the river, the tallest elevation for miles in any direction. The local Crow Indians revered it as "the place where the mountain lion lies" and carved animal figures into the rock face. When the white explorers came along in 1806, something about the butte's mysterious power compelled them to add their mark as well.

It's a simple autograph incised in the rock face—Wm Clark, July 25, 1806—in some ways no different from the thousands of other carvings added by fur trappers, soldiers, gold prospectors, railroad workers, and homesteaders over the past 2 centuries. But Clark's graffiti is the only physical evidence the Lewis and Clark expedition left behind them as they charted the United States' newly acquired western wilderness for President Jefferson. Do they really want to look down on a complex of high-speed grain elevators?

Outraged protesters temporarily stopped United Harvest from building a 100-acre (40-hectare) grain-loading plant on neighboring land in September 2000, but in the end, a handful of history buffs weren't enough to stop the multinational conglomerate.

Pompeys Pillar has been a landmark for a long time. In 1873, Custer's troops camped here before facing the Sioux at Little Big Horn. The Northern Pacific Railroad built a protective iron grill over Clark's signature in the 1880s because so many passengers got off at the nearby station to view it. It was officially named a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and a national monument in January 2001 (after the grain plant uproar underlined the need to protect the site). A new visitor center with extensive exhibits was opened in 2006 to mark the bicentennial of Clark's visit. You can climb the butte on a protective boardwalk (1,000 ft./300m long, with 200 steps) to view Clark's signature, now encased under glass. Other trails on the site lead to a replica of the expedition's canoes and to a scenic overlook.

In his journal, Clark named the rock formation "Pomp's Tower" after the toddler son of their Shoshoni guide, Sacagawea (the baby's real name was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, but Clark nicknamed him Pompy, or "Little Chief" in Shoshoni). The pillar isn't Pompy's only claim to fame, either—he even appears on the U.S. gold dollar, being carried by his famous mother.