Montana's DAR Markers . . . Honoring Where History Was Made

Revolution. Local Boy Scouts, the Three Forks Area Historical Society,
and the Gallatin County Historical Society participated in both
dedications.
In 2005, after years of fund-raising, the Three Forks Area
Historical Society placed a statue of Sacajawea in Sacajawea Park next
to the DAR marker. The statue is a 250-pound life-and-a-quarter-sized
bronze that depicts Sacajawea in a sitting position holding her infant
son, Pomp. Its “coming home” theme descends from when Sacajawea
reached the Missouri River Headwaters at Three Forks in July 1805,
and recognized the Tobacco Root Mountains to the southwest. (A
Shoshone Indian, she had been kidnapped there and taken away by rival
Hidatsa warriors to what is now North Dakota.)
On October 25, 2014, the Mount Hyalite Chapter sponsored a
second marker rededication to celebrate the 100 th centennial of the
DAR marker’s original placement. The celebration began at 10:30 a.m.
at the Sacajawea Hotel, across the street from the marker and statue of
Sacajawea, and ended with a catered luncheon. Guest speaker Charles
Spray of the Gallatin Historical Society spoke on Sacajawea and local
historian Patrick Finnegan spoke about the Patron Saints of Three
Forks. The event was co-hosted by the Headwaters Heritage Museum
and the Three Forks Area Historical Society.
SOURCES
• Historic monument records, Office of the Historian General, Wash. D.C.
• Record of Tablets and Markers Placed by Montana DAR 1908-1947, by Mrs.
Fred E. May
• State Centennial History, MSSDAR, by Iris McKinney Gray, Vol. V 1894-
1994
• Historical Sites Preserved and Markers Erected by MSSDAR and Its Chapters
1899-1977, by Mrs. R.V. Love and Mrs. E.E. Bruno
• MSSDAR 1982-1984 Pictorial Supplement to Historic Events of 1894-1977,
by Mrs. R.V. Love, Mrs. Sidney Groff and Miss Lorene Burks
156