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

HISTORY
First named by Captain William A. Clark as “Pompey’s Tower,”
Pompey’s Pillar is a huge sandstone formation rising 150 feet above the
Yellowstone River that was discovered by Clark on his return from the
Pacific Northwest on his journey down the Yellowstone River. The
pillar is a sandstone history book that reads like a who's who of western
frontier history. The rock face shows the remains of animal drawings
created by people who used the area for rendezvous, campsites, and
hunting over 11,000 years.
Naming the anomalous natural formation after Sacajawea's child
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau or 'Pomp,' Clark wrote of the discovery in
his journal that evening:
… at 4PM [I] arrived at the remarkable rock situated in an
extensive bottom. This rock I ascended and from it's top had a most
extensive view in every direction. This rock which I shall call
Pompy's Tower is 200 feet high and 400 paces in secumpherance and
only axcessible on one side which is from the N.E. the other parts of
it being a perpendicular clift of lightish coloured gritty rock. The
Indians have made 2 piles of stone on the top of this tower... [sic]
(Jones 2000, 185-186)
During his stay there, Captain Clark carved his signature into the
face of the rock. It reads: “Wm Clark, July 25, 1806.” The Northern
Pacific Railway was completed in 1882 and provided transportation
through the Yellowstone River Valley. Passengers stopping at the
Northern Pacific Railway station a half-mile south of the Pillar
routinely visited the Pillar to view Clark’s inscription. Over the years,
the letters began to fade and were vulnerable to both further erosion as
well as vandals.
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