Little Big Horn, Billings, Pompey’s Pillar

Day 21; June 13, 2021

We visit local monuments and continue to meet people on the road 

I love Big Sky Country...the heat of the summer sun, not so much.  We’re camped kind of in the middle of nowhere, but out here, people think nothing of hopping in the car and driving 2 hours to go somewhere! Stick with today’s travelogue as I have a VERY SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST appearing near the end of today’s post. (You will be impressed!)

We were able to visit several historical places, one of which ended up being really interesting, adding to the Lewis and Clark story we started earlier in our trip. It was a last-minute add-on and was really fun (other than being swarmed by mosquitoes!).

The day began close to where we’re camped, at the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. 

The grave markers for the Native Americans were made out of red granite to differentiate them from the white headstones of Custer’s men

This circular monument was added in the late 1990s to honor the Native Americans who defended their land

National Cemetary at Little Big Horn

Dan walks by a soldier’s gravesite on the Little Big Horn battlefield

Little Big Horn Monument to honor the soldiers who died at Little Big Horn. 80 of Custer’s troops were from Ohio.

We then headed toward Billings and the Pictograph Cave State Park. I love cave drawings and seeing Newspaper Rock in Utah is a highlight of my life. This park, not so much. Especially uphill, heat in the 90s, in the direct sunlight. The caves were cool though. It was a bummer that the “loop trail” was, in fact, an “out and back” with the last portion closed. But, with trusty hiking poles, it was not that much trouble. Sweat, yes; trouble, not so much.

Box elder

Beautiful country

The red markings on the cave wall are the pictographs; they apparently show rifles lined up. You can see the triangular-shaped stocks; the lines emanating from them are the barrels of the rifles. The dashed line below that is part of the pictograph as well. Many areas have come down so there’s not that much to see of the original cave art. People have lived in caves in this area as early as 9,000 years ago. (!!) I was kind of sad to see guns instead of horses and bison!

You can actually see two of the caves here; one on the left rock face, facing to the left, and the other  one is looking right at us. Note the sage in the foreground. Its scent was heavenly.

I google-mapped a restaurant in Billings for lunch. My criterion is that it not be a chain. We went to The Tippy Cow, open for breakfasts and lunches. I had “ham and cheddar stuffed French toast” that was fabulous. Dan had a turkey club. We’ve never been so pampered. There were five waitresses and other than taking the orders, everyone checked on all the tables. Not overbearing but we had care taken by 4 different women and each one was personality plus. I was impressed. And my lunch was delicious.  Crazy, busy, little Billings spot. I think ours was the only non-Montana license in the parking lot.

In Billings; we recommend it!  My cheese and ham-stuffed French toast sandwich was sweet (I tried it with each of maple and boysenberry syrups), savory, salty—YUMMY.
“Tip our servers, not the cows.”

Since we were playing tourist, we decided to hop over to Pompeys Pillar National Monument. (Note: there is no apostrophe in Pompeys. That drives me crazy). Pompey’s Pillar is a big rock outcropping along the Yellowstone River. Archeological evidence shows that it is very likely that Clark camped there with his entourage while awaiting Lewis to join up with him. Clark named the big stone outcropping Pompeys Tower (no apostrophe) after Sacagawea’s son with Explorer and Sioux translator Toussaint Charboneau, who they nicknamed “Pomp” (his given name was Jean Baptiste). The Tower was changed to “Pillar” in one of Clark’s early biographies. Lewis carved his name on the face of Pompeys Pillar so that those who came after would know he had been there. After seeing that famous “graffiti”, we climbed the steps to the top of the outcropping for a view that went for miles in all directions. We could hear a guitarist playing on top and got him to play for us. In fact, his entire band was there; they will be in Jackson Hole later this week.

So. This is what happens when you input “Pompeys Pillar” into your Google Maps app instead of the correct “Pompeys Pillar National Monument”. Welcome to downtown Pompey’s Pillar, MT. Pompeys Pillar (no apostrophe), Montana has an approximate population of 272. Next to the building, above, is the one-room log post office. Dan wants to know where I was trying to take him. Luckily, the National Monument was just 2.6 miles from the unincorporated community of Pompeys Pillar. #garbageingarbageout #navigatorerror

The inside of the small but beautiful visitor’s center; note the Yellowstone River in the floor!

Facsimile of the real thing, which is located high up on the rock outcropping, behind plexiglass

Thank you, Dan, for spotting this while I was filming Robert Henry!

Looking down to the Yellowstone River, from the top of Pompeys Pillar

Robert Henry, of The Robert Henry Band (www.roberthenrymusic.com), performed a bit of his original, unreleased music. This kid can SING—AND PLAY! It was such a fun random encounter. And made all the sweat getting to the top worth it!

So. Now I’ve turned into THAT PERSON who puts the teaser up at the top of the blog post, and then can’t deliver the video content as promised. I did some digging and found out that Google, who owns Blogger, has made a deal with the devil, in this case, Shutterfly. Apparently, the only way to upload videos is to have a contract for video files with Shutterfly, which I don’t have. In any case, the music was lovely. Go to the website and listen for yourself. I’m sorry. (I’m turning into a bad unethical person in writing this blog....) www.Roberthenrymusic.com 

The Yellowstone River—taking the river path to the car was my mistake; the mosquitoes were voracious. 

How hot was the RoadHouse when we got back? Funny you should ask....

Taken out of our side door last night, 10 pm. Good night....

Tomorrow: Wyoming! Stay tuned!