In Jefferson County, Montana sits a 160-acre area with a massive limestone and stalactite rich cave. Originally discovered in 1895 by D. A. Morrison, of Whitehall, Montana, the site became the Lewis and Clark National Monument in 1908.

Unfortunately, it took an additional three years to survey the area, and President Taft formally announced the opening of the monument in 1911. The largest of the cave's explored chambers has a ceiling height of 100ft. Interestingly, the namesakes of the cavern (Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) never visited the location. The Corps of Discovery came close when they traveled the Jefferson River, but no member ever visited the cave. The site bears the names of Lewis and Clark because from atop the monument one is able to see approximately 50 miles of the journey taken by the expedition as they traveled along the Jefferson River in 1805.

In order to better protect the cave's ecology and maintain the site for public enjoyment, Congress abolished the monument and handed it over to the state in 1937. The site reopened to the public in 1941 as Montana's first state park. The Civilian Conservation Corps completed thousands of national work projects during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs of the 1930s; one of these projects was to establish the infrastructure of the state park by clearing roads and trails, building a visitors center, laying electrical cables, clearing and widening passages, and chiseling stairways into the limestone for visitor tours.

Today, Lewis and Clark State Park has expanded to almost 3,000 acres, is open year round, and features camping amenities and ten miles of hiking trails. Guided tours of the naturally "air-conditioned" cavern go on during the year's warmer months.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Travis Patterson