Just outside the entrance to the main building one will find several historical markers concerning the Lewis & Clark expedition, which passed through the Big Timber area on their return trip to St. Louis. The markers contain snippets from William Clark's journal, each written at the time they passed through the Big Timber area, July 16th to July 18th, 1806. There are also a few paragraphs of factual information on the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
In 1804-06, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led about 40 soldiers and boatmen on an epic journey. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned this "Corps Of Discovery", to find a route to the Pacific Ocean through the newly acquired Louisiana territory Along the way, they mapped the land, recorded its resources, and contacted its native inhabitants.
The landscape has changed since Lewis and Clark explored it: rivers have been dammed, forests cut over, prairies plowed under, and roads built to the horizon. Although remnants of wilderness still exist, imagine this land as Lewis and Clark first saw it two centuries ago.
During the 1806 return journey from the Pacific Ocean, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled separate routes to explore more territory. Captain Clark and ten men, together with Sacagawea and her infant son Jean Baptiste (called "Pomp" by Clark), traveled east on horseback down well-worn Indian and buffalo trails along the Yellowstone River's north side. The party spent three days in present Sweet Grass County - hunting, making moccasins for the horses, and exploring.
Captain William Clark and the Corps of Discovery camped. on July 16, 1806 under the shade of cottonwood trees on the north side of the Yellowstone River. This valley provided grass for their 50 horses to graze and an abundance of wildlife --- a blessing after periods of near starvation earlier in their journey.
Captain William Clark was the primary cartographer for the Corps of Discovery. With very little training prior to the expedition, he created maps based on field sketches, celestial readings, and compass bearings that were an invaluable contribution to knowledge. Not only did they dispel the myth of the Northwest Passage, they also recorded previously uncharted lands and paved the way for westward expansion and opportunity.
Using mostly a surveyor's compass, field observations ans estimates, Clark drew nearly 5,000 miles of new mapping. Amazingly, his measurements were only off by a mere 5%.
Several creeks in the Yellowstone Valley were named after Corps of Discovery members or dramatic incidents. Private Gibson was thrown from his horse and pierced his thigh on a snag. The wound, two inches, deep; left him in great pain.' Clark named the creek "Thy Snag'd Creek ".
From the Markers at the site