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People Talk About Their Visit to Clark Days 2010

Denise Rexroat, of St. Louis, Missouri, holds the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial passport she had stamped with the official Clark on the Yellowstone stamp during the Signature Event at Pompeys Pillar National Monument July 23, 2006. She said it was 102 in the shade that day. Rexroat, who was traveling with family members, said she was delighted to be able to coordinate her 2010 trip with Clark Days so she could visit the site during the actual event again. “I love the place,” she declared. She has visited Monticello, St. Charles, the breaks of the Ohio where Lewis and Clark met to plan the journey and begin to gather the crew for the expedition, the Clark cabin that overlooks those breaks, the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and, finally, on July 24, 2010, the noted place the Missouri River begins, where the Madison, Jefferson and the Gallatin Rivers flow together at Three Forks, Montana.

Diane Warren of Billings said her Daughter, Kori Hassler, had noticed the information in the Billings Gazette’s Enjoy section and called to say, “Let’s go.” Clockwise are Warren, Kinsey Hassler, 4, and Kori Hassler. Warren is holding Ellie Hassler, 2. Clark Days 2010 was Kori’s husband’s first visit to the pillar. Warren said the pillar is a great place to take friends and relatives from out of state who come to visit them. Kinsey said her favorite activity at the pillar is walking up the stairs. The boardwalk leads to Clark’s engraving on the 150 foot pillar and to the overlook of the valley at the summit.

The Huntley Project Lions Club volunteers serve a pancake breakfast and then a buffalo burger lunch on Sunday during Clark Days. John Carney was taking a shift at flipping burgers in this photo as club members, Justin Hein and Sam Shaules cooked hot dogs and readied more food. Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy is a regular at Clark Days in the “chef’s outdoor kitchen.”

Park Ranger Cher Lopez bestows the title of Junior Ranger to Brooke Graves, a fourth-grade student at Rose Park Elementary in Billings. Kids can become Pompeys Pillar Junior Rangers anytime, but a special tent is set up to help youngsters learn to bead, learn about outdoor safety, and find out what present-day items match with what Lewis and Clark used. Kids make a drawing of what they want to remember. They circle things they saw at the pillar and what they saw from the top of the pillar. They receive a certificate and badge for their efforts. Brooke Graves’ sisters, Emma, 11, and Haley, 4, and her brother, Ross, 7, all earned badges during Clark Days 2010. They were there with their parents, Lindy and Heidi Graves. Heidi is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Graves family was at Clark Days to visit that booth and all of the other Clark Days attractions.

More than a history buff, Montana State University Billings history professor Tom Rust and his wife, Aimee, reveled in the demonstration booths at Clark Days 2010 with their sons, Jackson, 3, and Bridger, 6. Bridger was intent on using a feather quill and real ink to recreate Captain Clark’s engraved signature he had seen on the pillar. The signature is the only remaining physical evidence of the journey that still exists along the actual trail. Tom Rust serves on the Rochejhone Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trails Foundation.

Kurt Strubler, 10, who describes himself as a math buff, said, “I really liked doing the sextant thing.” He is pictured here with the sextant that Pompeys Pillar volunteer docent John LeVar demonstrates during Clark Days. The tool is part of LeVar’s talk about how Captain Clark was an amazing map maker. He lays Clark’s maps over present-day maps to illustrate how accurate Clark was in his calculations and drawings that are part of the Lewis and Clark journals. The Chuck Strubler family from Corydon, Indiana, was on an eight-day vacation that had Pompeys Pillar as a must-see destination. “We are Lewis and Clark history buffs,” said Chuck. Himself a fur tanner, and his son Lucas, 16, a flintknapper, the two speak at the Indiana University’s three-week Lewis and Clark class held each year.

Clark Days at Pompeys Pillar Draws Record Crowds

By Gloria Wester

W!VG Staff

A love of history, fascination with the Lewis and Clark Trail, an educational opportunity, and a chance to take guests to a unique attraction drew multitudes of visitors to the annual Clark Days celebration at Pompeys Pillar National Monument in southeastern Montana.

Saturday night, July 24, 400 people attended the evening programs learning about the namesake of the site, little Pomp, who was 17 months old at the time Captain William Clark and his party of 13 explored the Yellowstone River. Pomp was the nickname for Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacajawea and Touissant Charbonneau, who interpreted for and guided the Corps of Discovery expedition. Another Saturday night program about early history of the pillar, hundreds of years before Clark carved his name on it July 25, 1806, played out as the moon, two days shy of its full phase, rose over the pillar.

Binoculars and cameras pointed skyward as the Sunday morning, July 25, bird walk group trekked around the acres of land surrounding the pillar, bordering the Yellowstone River.

With appetites piqued by the walk, people lined up for the morning pancake breakfast, served by the Huntley Project Lions Club. Following the raising of the colors, just as the expedition raised the 15-star flag every morning, discovery time from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. led to the interpretive center, the boardwalk to the top of the pillar, and to interpretive booths on the grassy banks of the river under huge cottonwood trees.

Bluegrass music, punctuated by the loud discharges of early firearms, was the background for strolling, learning how a sextant works, earning Junior Ranger badges, watching horse shoes in the making, stroking the lashed-together canoes that carried Captain Clark’s party from the Park City area to the confluence of the Missouri and on to the Mandan villages in North Dakota, and tasting a bit of expedition-style cooking, and then lining up for a buffalo burger lunch.

Richard Baker, a Great Falls historian and presenter, portrayed expedition navigator and interpreter Pierre Cruzatte, who was half French and half Omaha Indian. Baker played Lewis and Clark era tunes. Cruzatte’s entertainment was frequently mentioned in the journals of the Corps that explored the Louisiana Purchase lands from 1804-1806. In "The Ghost of Cruzatte" program, Baker plays the ghost, or spirit, of Cruzatte, giving the audience an insight into the expedition member. The setting for his story is 1805 at what is now Great Falls, Montana.

Crow dancers shared stories and history and danced in their intricate beaded buckskin garments, some bearing claws, bone beads and sacred feathers. “Marvin Dawes, from the Crow Tribe, coordinated the Crow presentation. He is a Crow historian and also works as a Park Ranger at Little Bighorn Battlefield. He explained the significance of the songs, costumes, and dances. There were drummers and singers, as well as dancers. The audience participated with the Crow on the final dance,” said Dick Kodeski, who has been BLM’s Pompeys Pillar Manager since 1992.

The event is the result of the efforts of the 50 volunteers who staff the site and association board members. “The Bureau of Land Management has 13 employees at the pillar from May through September,” said Kodeski. “I've heard many favorable comments about the event and what a good time visitors had.” A total of 2,600 visitors attended Clark Days on Sunday, according to Kodeski.

Kodeski said the benefit of offering the Clark Days event is that is brings attention to Pompeys Pillar and the historical significance of the site in a safe, fun atmosphere. “This includes not only Clark on the Yellowstone and his stop at a ‘remarkable rock’, but also the Crow and American Indian cultures, fur trappers, early cavalry, the railroad, etc.

Marcilynn Burke, the Deputy Director of BLM, attended Clark Days and said a few words about the National Landscape Conservation System. She praised the work of Pompeys Pillar Historical Association and its volunteers.

Kodeski said, “ A highlight is that this is the 10th anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) of BLM. This system was created by BLM 10 years ago and is the first conservation system designated by Congress in over 40 years. President Obama signed the act. The NLCS includes national monuments, including Pompeys Pillar, national conservation areas, wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, wild and scenic rivers and national scenic and historic trails. We are pleased that Marcilynn Burke attended Clark Days and spoke.”

More Personal Interviews at Clark Days 2010

Dan and Karen Poling visited the pillar during past Clark Days events and during the Bicentennial Clark on the Yellowstone Signature Event. Their love of history and the significance of the site led them to accept the opportunity to become volunteers at the pillar at the bequest of a friend. New volunteers are always welcome at the pillar. Call 875-2400.

Jack and Jean Burkard from Raleigh, North Carolina, saw the Clark Days event publicized in the Welcome! Visitors Guide at the campground in Hardin, Montana, where they were staying. “We would have stopped here anyway, but we came on this day because we saw that the event was going on,” said Jack Burkard. “We are history buffs and have included historic stops in our vacations that have stretched across the United States from the East Coast to the West Coast. We have seven states to go.” The Burkards said the East Coast is all about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the Midwest about pioneers, and the Western states about trails. “We plan to follow the information in the Visitors Guide along I-94 after this event,” they said.

Jennifer and Mark Lurie have lived in Oklahoma, Israel, and now in Roundup, Montana. The Luries had noticed the Clark Days story in Welcome! Visitors Guide in Roundup, and had picked up information from the Pompeys Pillar Historical Association booth at Summerfair in Billings. They were at Clark Days with children, Dana, 21, Daniel ,13, and Sasha, 8. “This is a birding paradise,” said Jennifer, who home schools her children. Sasha and I studied about Sacajawea and Pomp before we came today. We took quizzes home from the Daughters of the American Revolution booth here,” she said. “We are a family of artists and are especially interested in how things are made.” She said the booths at Clark Days are wonderful for that. The family enjoyed the talk on how to make a canoe, the blacksmith’s description of how he forms the horseshoes, and the demonstration on the working parts of the guns. “You get your hands on history here,” said Jennifer.

When Rick Baldwin Googled “Pioneer Days,” a favorite topic of his, the Pompeys Pillar Clark Days popped up. His wife, Patti, had noticed the ad about Clark Days in the Billings Gazette about the same time. The couple invited friends, Dianna Carter and Trent Jones, to hop on their motorcycles and ride out from Billings for the day.

Longtime Pompeys Pillar Association board member and former Billings Senior High School history teacher Sherman Hubley was showing off his years of support of the Lewis and Clark story to his son’s family from Utah. Charles and Janet Hubley and their daughter, Lindsey, stood in awe at the accomplishments of the association in its partnership with the Bureau of Land Management. Daughter-in-law, Peggy Hubley, from Billings, has followed the progress of the pillar with Sherman and the late Myrtle Hubley since the early 1990s, when BLM purchased the pillar and over 400 acres from the John Foote family, who had been stewards of the pillar for nearly half a century.

Joyce Jensen of the Rochejhone Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trails Foundation, and a staff member of the Western Heritage Center in Billings, conducted a booth that offered learning activities for kids. She said the turnout of children was great for Clark Days 2010.

Shirley Sanders saw Clark Days advertised in the Billings paper, but was prompted to check it out when she heard the promotions on the Lonnie Bell radio spots. “I’m a snowbird, originally from California, but I have spent six summers in Billings,” she said. It was her first trip to Clark Days. She wondered about opportunities to shop at vendor booths. Many events have vendor booths, but Clark Days has demonstration booths instead.