Billings, MT (08-22-20)

I told Paul I didn’t want to be the planner for our first day in Billings, so he came up with an itinerary.

Our first stop was Pictograph Cave State Park, where we saw....pictographs.









Although some of the art is newer (there are rifles) some of it has been carbon dated to 230 BC. These are not the clearest pictographs we have ever seen, that's for sure.

The second cave, Ghost Cave, didn’t have pictographs but it did have something pretty interesting. The round boulders looked like heads to me, but they are called concretions, and each one is formed around a central point, such as a bone or fossil.









This particular bunch formed around clam shells that were left behind when this was an inland sea.  When we stepped back outside the cave you could see the continuation of the clam bed.

This area used to be a place for natives to come and prepare themselves for spiritual dreaming. One night, an Apsaalook brave was sheltering in the cave.  It was really dark and he realized he was not alone. Another man, also realizing he wasn’t alone, made his way slowly towards the Apsaalook man. Neither could see the other, nor  speak the others language- but the Apsaalook man took the others hand and brought it to his head to show that his hair was tied in the way of the Apsaalook, part of the Crow Nation, and the other man took The Apsaalook’s hand and ran it across his throat, indicating he was a Cutthroat, or Lakota. There remained an uneasy truce until daybreak, when they both went on their way.

From there we drove a half hour to get to Pompey’s Pillar National Monument.  The pillar itself used to be underwater, and when the sea receded, this sandstone pillar was left behind. 











It’s claim to fame is that William Clark, of Lewis and Clark, came this way in 1806. He and Lewis had split off, to explore a wider area, and were planning on meeting up at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, on their way back to St. Louis. 

 Clark stayed here with a small group of men, along with Sacagawea and her infant son “Pomp” (for whom the pillar is named).

Before he left the area, Clark engraved his name on the rock. It’s the only physical evidence of their journey that still exists today.  This is a replica- the sandstone on the pillar is having some structural testing done, so it is closed.








I don’t know whose job it was to plan our second day in Billings, but we ended up sitting around, writing blog posts and washing vehicles.