Side Trip: Coulson Park, Montana
(4 miles round trip)
At the Coulson settlement, Nez Perce warriors burned a shack and exchanged shots with residents secured in hastily constructed rifle pits. The Nez Perce continued on to near the present town of Huntley before returning back to rejoin the main assemblage moving up Canyon Creek.
Coulson, Montana
The town of Coulson was a stop for steamboats traveling up the Yellowstone River. When the Montana & Minnesota Land Company acquired land for railroad development in 1877,company officials ignored Coulson and platted the new town of Billings several miles to the west. As Billings nourished,Coulson died.
Pompeys Pillar National Monument
This imposing sandstone outcrop overlooks the Yellowstone River about 25 miles east of Billings, Montana. Being the only sandstone outcrop on the south side of the Yellowstone for many miles around, Pompeys Pillar has been a landmark for centuries.
Named by Captain William Clark after Sacagawea’s son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, whom Cpt. Clark had nicknamed Pomp, Pompeys Pillar features the last surviving physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Cpt. Clark’s signature is carved into the sandstone.
After the Canyon Creek Battle, wounded soldiers were taken 40 miles down the north bank of the Yellowstone River to Pompeys Pillar. There, they secured a wide-bottomed mackinaw. This riverboat, used to haul freight, took them to a hospital on the Tongue River. The entire trip took eight days.
