Last updated: January 25, 2021
Place
Tower Rock
Quick Facts
Location:
2325 Old US Highway 91, Cascade MT
Significance:
Transition from Plains to the Rockies
Designation:
National Register of Historic Places
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
6 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board, Parking - Auto, Picnic Table, Restroom
Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums
This map shows a range of features associated with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which commemorates the 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. The trail spans a large portion of the North American continent, from the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington. The trail is comprised of the historic route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an auto tour route, high potential historic sites (shown in black), visitor centers (shown in orange), and pivotal places (shown in green). These features can be selected on the map to reveal additional information. Also shown is a base map displaying state boundaries, cities, rivers, and highways. The map conveys how a significant area of the North American continent was traversed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and indicates the many places where visitors can learn about their journey and experience the landscape through which they traveled.
Tower Rock is a High Potential Historic Site on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
On July 16, 1805, Lewis and three other men advanced ahead of the main group “to the point where the river enters the Rocky Mountains” in order to make observations. After passing through rolling plains, they arrived at a point where “there is a large rock of 400 feet high wich stands immediately in the gap which the missouri makes on it’s passage from the mountains; it is insulated from the neighbouring mountains by a handsome little plain which surrounds it base on 3 sides and the Missouri washes it’s base on the other, leaving it on the Lard. as it decends. this rock I called the tower. it may be ascended with some difficulty nearly to it’s summit, and from it there is a most pleasing view of the country we are now about to leave.” For the expedition, Tower Rock marked a definitive transition from the familiar Great Plains into the unknown terrain of the Rocky Mountains.
The significance of Tower Rock long predated Lewis and Clark; the Blackfeet Tribe considered it to be a sacred place, and multiple tribes used it as a landmark for passage into and out of present-day Montana’s bison grounds. The site is publicly accessible as part of Tower Rock State Park. The 140-acre day-use park includes hiking trails and interpretive wayside exhibits.