By Topic: National Historic Landmark/ Monument

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Signing at the Signature Rock, Pompey’s Pillar near Billings, Montana

Pompey’s Pillar was named by William Clark for Sacagawea’s little boy, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who was called "Pomp" or "Pompey."  The toddler, who was born on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan near Bismarck, North Dakota, got a giant graffiti rock, a distinctive outcropping about 150 feet high, named after him when he was 17 months old. William Clark climbed to near the top of the rock, carved "William Clark  July 25 1806" in the soft sandstone, and named it "Pompey’s Tower." The editor of his published journal, Nicholas Biddle, renamed  it "Pompey’s Pillar." Located near a natural crossing of the Yellowstone River, the Crown Indians called the butte, Iishbiiammaache, or "the place where the mountain lion dwelled." For centuries Native Americans made hundreds of their own carvings (petroglyphs) and paintings (pictographs) on the rock. 

I signed Lewis and Clark Road Trips books in the Stephen A Ambrose Authors Tent  in 106 degree heat at Pompey’s Pillar. Despite the heat over 25,000 people attended the the 13th Lewis and Clark National Signature Event which was held 30 miles east of Billings, Montana in late July, 2006.  

 Peyton "Bud" Clark, the great, great, great grandson of William Clark reenacted his ancestor’s carving of his name and date on an outdoor stage at Pompey’s Pillar in that terrible heat, but he’s as tough as William Clark and got it done. Bud  has shown all the leadership skills, endurance and enjoyment of people, adventure, and the great outdoors that William Clark had. His participation in the bicentennial observances as the leader of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles has been one of the most important and lasting memories of these special years.

 Not to worry about climbing  the boardwalk if you are visiting. There is a brand new Visitor Center, which was dedicated at the Signature Event, where you can enjoy a view of the Pillar in comfort and use a telescope to get a close up view. The Visitor Center is open from the last weekend in May to the first weekend in September. There is year round access to the rock itself. It’s just a coincidence that this was called a "Signature Event" as this was the name given to all fifteen places around the country who hosted National Signature Events in the bicentennial years.

Pompey’s Pillar became a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and a National Historic Monument in 2001. William Clark’s signature today is enclosed in a protective glass frame, first put there by the local family who leased the land in the 1950’s and later bought it to preserve this remarkable piece of history. Read about Don and Stella Foote on the web’s great Lewis and Clark history website, Discovering Lewis & Clark.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/01/2006 at 12:19 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Lewis and Clark Trail • Montana • TRAVEL • NATIVE AMERICAN • Sacagawea • National Historic Landmark/ Monument • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Author Goes Sightseeing in Washington DC

I had one destination I wanted to see more than anything else: the George Catlin Indian Gallery at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. The Renwick Gallery located three blocks north of the White House is one of Washington's most famous old buildings. 287 of Catlin's Indian portraits and landscapes are on permanent exhibit in the Renwick's Grand Salon, hung floor to ceiling in the old manner. Catlin painted many of the Indian tribes visited by Lewis and Clark, and is the source of much of the first hand knowledge we have today. He was a friend of William Clark's.  Read more about his fascinating life in the Smithsonian Magazine. Catlin's paintings were acquired by the Smithsonian in 1871 and first exhibited in the Smithsonian Castle. They have only recently been placed on full exhibit once again. The Renwick, like all Smithsonian institutions, has free admission.

This was very much a working vacation--what with Book Expo and the Lewis and Clark Road Trips congressional briefing--but I did manage to get in some sightseeing. I was glad to be in a taxi to get an orientation to America's National Mall.  At 2.5 miles, it's a big place!  It was a thrill to see the Washington Monument as the plane landed at Reagan National Airport across the Potomac River from the Mall. I wished I could have had the time to visit the monument and see the view.

After obtaining a pass from a congressional office, I walked along the Mall one evening to see the House  in session at the Capitol. I sat in the galleries next to a high school civics teacher who explained what was going on. They were like a flock of birds, swooping in and out of the legislative chamber.  They do their business elsewhere and return to vote. The most surprising thing to me was the full length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in the chamber flanking the portrait of George Washington.  As I left the Capitol I saw one of America's most famous paintings, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way by Emmanuel Leutze (1861). It is the premiere symbol of Manifest Destiny, a concept embedded in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The giant wall mural is displayed near the house chamber at a marble staircase landing. There's a  book by a Native American lawyer just published on the subject: Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny by Robert J. Miller. It's one of my Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books picks, available through the Lewis and Clark Road Trips Amazon Associate bookstore. It's one of the most important books to come out of the bicentennial observances.

Herman Viola gave me a tour of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Exhibit which ended its national tour at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Dr. Viola was one of the experts who helped put it together. I had seen it in St Louis, Missouri in 2004, but it was worth seeing many times over. The exhibition book,  Lewis and Clark Across the Divide by Carolyn Gilman, which is very beautiful, is another one of the Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books. The exhibit was a collection of authentic artifacts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, loaned by over 50 institutions. What struck me most forcibly was how rich looking the objects were--both what the expedition carried, and what they obtained from the Native American tribes.

 I visited  Politics & Prose Bookstore, which I often see hosting book talks on C-SPAN's Book TV. I am a native of Washington DC; my mother told me that when I was a toddler she would take me to book talks at a DC bookstore, and I would play in a playpen made out of stacks of books! I am still surrounded by stacks of books--only now I can read them--and I still  hear book talks on weekends with Book TV. Politics & Prose is just as neat as I thought it would be. There was a book talk going on, the place was crammed with books,  and there was a coffee shop in the lower level. It's located at 5015 Connecticut Avenue in a pleasant neighborhood with nearby restaurants.

All of these destinations (except Politics & Prose) are included in Lewis and Clark Road Trips.

Posted by Kira Gale on 10/28/2006 at 01:01 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Museums • Washington DC • National Historic Landmark/ Monument • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us