Livingston is the county seat of Park County and is in southwestern Montana, on the Yellowstone River, north of Yellowstone National Park.
The community was first named Clark City in honor of Herman Clark, a well known contractor and builder for the Northern Pacific Railroad.
The town plat was filed later that year under the name Livingston in recognition of Johnston Livingston, a director and major stockholder of the railroad.
The railroad provided a means of transporting coal, wool, and cattle to market. It also enabled Livingston to serve as the original gateway to Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park. Mining and agriculture were additional economic factors in the town’s development.
Today, Livingston is the 11th largest city in Montana. Rail transportation continues to be a mainstay of the area’s economy, along with tourism, recreation, agriculture, and mining.
The Corps of Discovery’s entry into the Yellowstone River valley is commemorated at Sacajawea Park in the city of Livingston. The municipal park is about a half-mile downriver from the probable location where the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the river, July 15, 1806. A statue of Sacagawea mounted upon a horse and holding her son.
Sacajawea Park is situated along the Yellowstone River and offers a large variety of activities. There are 6 tennis courts, picnic tables with grills and shaded benches, a bandstand, sports fields, playground, skate park, an outdoor swimming pool and picturesque views of the Yellowstone River.
Sacajawea Park is part of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail.
One of the highlights is the 9-foot-tall statue of the Shoshone woman Sacajawea on horseback and with Pomp as a toddler. The artist who created this masterpiece is Montana artist Mary Michael and it is titled
At the Yellowstone.
AT THE YELLOWSTONE
This statue commemorates Sacajawea, whose loyalty, courage and, devotion were instrumental in the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806.
Holding her infant son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (nicknamed "Pomp" by Capt. Wn. Clark), she sits astride a horse, pausing to drink from the waters of the Yellowstone River. The day is July 15, 1806, Clark and several members of the Corps of Discovery are headed downstream to rendezvous with Meriwether Lewis and the remainder of the explorers.
Dedicated on July 15, 2006, the piece titled “At the Yellowstone,” by Montana artist Mary Michael, refers to when Sacajawea, Pompey, and the other members of the Corps, rested and watered their horses on horses on July 15, 1806. The dedication featured a decedent of William Clark and a member of the Shoshone tribe who gave the blessing in her native tongue.
Sacajawea was instrumental to the success of the expedition for a variety of skills and attributes that she embodied. She was an interpreter for her Shoshone people and was able to negotiate and obtain horses from them. She knew of native food sources and local geography. As a woman, her presence among the armed soldiers signaled a peaceful intent to the tribes which the Corps encountered. Carrying an infant to the Pacific and back, she extended a calming influence as a wife, mother, sister, and friend.
This teenager has become a unique blend of legend, historical fact, myth, iconography and multicultural embrace. Upon the expedition's departure from her Mandan Village in North Dakota and heading back to St, Louis, William Clark wrote a remarkable letter to her husband Toussaint Charbonneau "you woman who accompanied you that long dangerous fatiguing route to the Pacific Ocean and back deserves greater reward for her attention and service on the route than we had in our power to give her at the Mandan...Aug. 20, 1806"
May her spirit continue to embrace us, to flow with the waters of the Yellowstone, and be permanently etched in the history of this country.
transcribed from plaque.
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over every aspect of her life, from the spelling of her name (Sacagawea and Sakakawea), the origins of her ancestors, and her demise. This much is certain, the Sacajawea of American culture and mythology is a larger-than-life, and she has in two hundred years outshone every other member of the expedition with the possible exceptions of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
The marker is on the boulder in front of the brick wall.