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Yellow Bird: Following the Lewis and Clark trail
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Filed Under: Opinion

"The 200th anniversary of the Corps of Discovery's historic journey now is finished and a part of the past, but this celebration taught many of us a lot of backyard history that we hadn't known. Lewis and Clark, Sakakawea, Charbonneau and others became more than historical characters for us. Their route from St. Louis to Oregon went right through our region.

While traveling through Montana a few weeks ago, I stopped for the first time at a site called Pompeys Pillar National Monument, the only remaining physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition that is visible on their actual route.

I'd seen the green highway signs that indicated Pompeys Pillar historical marker many times but never had stopped. This time, I did a “U-ey” off Interstate 94 toward the Yellowstone River, which my sister and I had been following since we passed Glendive, Mont.

As we came off the highway, we were surprised - although we shouldn't have been - to find that the pillar was more than just a placard with a historic description facing the site. It is a national monument, and we had to pay to enter. And pay we did, once we saw this gigantic yellow monster a few miles away."

Get the Story:
Dorreen Yellow Bird: ‘Near which I marked my name and the day' (The Grand Forks Herald 7/11)
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