Beaverhead Rock, Montana

Photo of Beaverhead Rock as it appeared in 2019.

USDA Flickr Account

Quick Facts

Location:

62 Beaverhead Rock Rd, Twin Bridges, MT 59754

Significance:

Sacagawea saw this rock and recognized her Shoshone homeland.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Beaverhead Rock State Park (Montana)

MANAGED BY:

Beaverhead Rock State Park

“the Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west.  this hill she says her nation calls the beaver’s head from a conceived remblance of it’s figure to the head of that animal. she assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of it’s source; which from it’s present size cannot be very distant.” —Meriwether Lewis, August 8, 1806 

Winding their boats through the narrow Beaverhead River, thick willow shrubs on either side, the Lewis and Clark Expedition met Sacagawea’s observation with a sigh of relief.  

She would have told her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, in Hidatsa that she recognized the rock, and he likely communicated it in French to one of the French speakers (perhaps George Drouillard), who then told Meriwether Lewis and William Clark that Sacagawea recognized this place. It was near the home of Shoshone people, where she had lived until five years before.  

The seasoned travelers could see the mountains not too far away. They would need horses, which Shoshone people had in abundance, to carry their equipment and supplies over the mountains.  

Sacagawea’s relationship with her Shoshone relatives was critical to the party being able to trade for these valuable animals. Without her, there was less of a chance that anyone would spare a horse for these strangers. They would have had to leave most of equipment, from clothes to items of value that they could trade with Indigenous people on the Columbia River. 

They knew how important Sacagawea was. When she saw this rock, everyone might have felt a sense of relief—not least Sacagawea, who would soon reunite with her Shoshone relatives.  

This article is part of a series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

Visitor Centers (shown in orange), High Potential Historic Sites (shown in black), and Pivotal Places (shown in green) along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail