Hours: Open 9:00am-5:00pm to vehicle traffic until October 25, 2008. Walk in visitors are welcome after October 25th. Cost is $7.00 per vehicle during open hours.Federal interagency passes are honored (annual, senior, access and volunteer) in lieu of the daily fee.
This is an area that was once an inland sea. Over the last 65 million years it has given way to mountains, rivers and plains. Standing as an Erosional element of more ancient times, Pompeys Pillar, a unique block shaped rock, and the cliffs across the river are composed of sandstones and shale’s of the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek (Lance) Formation. The cliffs and pillar were separated by waters of an ancient Yellowstone River. The Crow Tribe and Northern Cheyenne called it Elk River.
Pompeys Pillar is comprised of Eagle sandstone, a component of the Hell Creek Formation. The Hell Creek Formation, ranging from 75-65 million years ago, represents the last strata of the Cretaceous Period. This formation is famous in Montana for the discovery of numerous vertebrate fossils, including the triceratops and tyrannosaurus.
William Clark while on the Lewis & Clark Expedition may have been the first to record a paleontological find in the area downstream from Pompeys Pillar. “I employed my Self in getting pieces of a fish which was Semented within the face of the rock. It is 3 feet in length tho a part of the end appears to be broken off.”
Pompeys Pillar is within the territory historically acknowledged as the homeland of the Apsaalooke, or Crow people. The pillars name was called Lishiia Anaache or “Place Where the Mountain Lion Dwells.” Its remarkable appearance guaranteed its place as a natural landmark for the native people of the Northern Plains through more than 11,000 years of occupation. The Pillar was also a landmark used by members of the Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Sioux and Salish tribes.
Archeological evidence of past occupation by Native Americans has been discovered at various depths below ground. They appear to be the remains of hunting and living camps. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggest that the Pillar was also a place of ritual and religious activity.
At the listed coordinates you will also find information about petroglyphs and pictographs in the area.
Information obtained from;
Department of the Interior.
BLM
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:
E-mail us with answers to the following questions.
Just an FYI Custer nor Clark are none of the answers.
1. The pillar is comprised of sandstone and marine shales from different deposit cycles. When looking at the pillar how many distinct deposit cycles do you see?
2. Who was one of the military men assigned to protect the settler’s interest in this contentious territory?
3. Who was a General land Office Surveyor that came to the Pompey’s Pillar region and left his signature in 1883?
Begin your E-mail with the name of the Earth cache and in your log be sure to list the number of people in your party.
If we do not receive answers to the above questions your log will be deleted.