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Historical Background

Entering the Breaks of the Missouri

Not long after passing the mouth of the Musselshell, where camp was made the night of May 20-21, the boats entered the badlands area known today as the Breaks of the Missouri—majestic geological formations and towering sandstone cliffs, spotted here and there with black and red layers and erosional remnants. For the next 2-1/2 weeks, the frail craft were to be hemmed in by the walls of the breaks, whose crags were frequented by many bighorn sheep, which had first been seen on April 26. On May 25 Clark, Drouillard, and Bratton killed three. The only timber in the desert-like, rocky country were scattered patches of pine and spruce.

Shoals and rapids became more troublesome. Rock outcroppings were especially dangerous. If not straining at the towropes in water up to their armpits, the men were clambering along the bank, keeping a keen lookout for sharp rock fragments that had fallen from the cliffs above.

On the 26th Lewis and Clark separately labored up the sandstone bluffs and in the distance viewed snowy mountain crests, which like many another later traveler they mistakenly assumed were a chain in the main range of the Rockies. [99] Lewis' delight at finding himself so close to the head of the "heretofore conceived boundless Missouri" was sharply diminished by realization that crossing the Rockies would require much hardship.

Three days later, Clark named a large stream flowing in from the south the Judith River in honor of "Judith" (Julia) Hancock back in Fincastle, Va. Then but a girl of 13, within less than 3 years she would become Mrs. William Clark. The Judith was reconnoitered a short way.

Part of the White Rocks Section of the Missouri River Breaks, Mont. The spectacular stone formations in this part of the river amazed and delighted the men. This view is from Citadel Bluff toward the southeast. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

Evidences of Blackfeet

Near the confluence of the two rivers, the first of two exciting discoveries was made—evidences of large Indian encampments, of 100 and 126 lodges, one vacated only 2 weeks earlier and the other 5 or 6 weeks before. Sacagawea, examining abandoned moccasins, judged that the inhabitants were Blackfeet, whom Lewis and Clark were later to learn were the enemy of all surrounding tribes and the scourge of the Upper Missouri. [100]

The second discovery was viewed that same day about 13 miles farther up the Missouri, according to the leaders' calculations, at the foot of a 120-foot cliff along the north side of the river. Stretched out at its base were about 100 putrefied carcasses of buffalo, probably driven over the cliff a few weeks earlier by the Indians who had been camped at the mouth of the Judith. It was a buffalo jump, which the Indians had told the explorers about, with the animals still in place—a sight no other American had likely ever seen. In the vicinity were large numbers of wolves, which had gorged themselves into extreme docility; Clark easily killed one with his espontoon, a steel-pointed pike, or staff. Lewis and Clark, the grisly sight still in their minds and the stench fresh in their nostrils, dubbed a small nearby stream "Slaughter Creek" (present Arrow Creek).

A natural wonderland

The scenery was startling. From the mouth of the Judith onward, the geological wonderland that had begun unfolding not long after passing the Musselshell River burst forth into unusual splendor. For 4 days, an enchanting panorama lured all eyes to the steep, often perpendicular, cliffs that sometimes rose 300 feet. Nature's sculptor-mason—centuries of wind, ice, rain, and snow—had etched picturesque and intriguing formations out of the stone. The fanciful and grotesque shapes resembled the ruins of cities and buildings, spires, statuary, toadstools—or whatever else the mind chose to identify.

Gradually the terrain changed. The bluffs diminished, the plains became more level and extensive, timber increased, and game grew more plentiful. Suddenly, on June 2, on arrival at a major fork in the river, geologic wonder yielded to geographic dilemma.