Great Falls Tribune Editorial - January 17,2003
Welcome weekend of historic anniversaries

While the nation's eyes turn toward the start of the 200th Lewis and Clark anniversary this weekend, a related but unheralded national milestone is reached today in Montana.

It is the second anniversary of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

Two hundred years ago Saturday, then-President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Congress seeking funding for a major expedition to explore what became the Louisiana Purchase.

Two years ago today, then-President Bill Clinton designated as monument 377,000 acres of northcentral Montana, from Fort Benton to 149 miles downstream, the western edge of the C.M. Russell Wildlife Refuge.

Saturday at Jefferson's estate at Monticello, the official bicentennial hoopla kicks off with speeches, re-enactments, music and dance, attended by Lewis and Clark buffs and dignitaries including President George W. Bush.

In contrast, today along the most spectacular stretch of the Missouri River, cold winds will rattle the few remaining leaves in the cottonwoods, elk and deer will nose around in the coulees and an eagle will chase a rabbit.

Surer than taxes in April, the big river will keep on rolling, and there'll be few humans of any stripe, least of all politicians and history buffs.

And that's the glory of the Missouri Breaks Monument: It looks much the same today as it looked 200 years ago, before Jefferson's delegates poled their way upstream in their pirogues.

Harsh land, beautiful land, one of the monument's highest callings is that it preserves -- in better shape than any other part of their 3,700-mile trek -- what Lewis and Clark saw.

It took the captains and their Corps of Discovery about two weeks to work their way through what today is the monument.

They went past the Judith River (which Clark named after his cousin Julia Hancock). They marveled at the White Cliffs.

They lingered for days at the mouth of the Marias River (which Lewis named for his cousin Maria Wood) because they weren't sure which way to go -- most of the men believed the Marias to be the mainstem of the Missouri. Only after days-long explorations of the alternatives did the two leaders overrule the judgment of the others and proceed toward the Great Falls of the Missouri.

Some 200 years later, we can linger there ourselves, and we can see most of the other natural wonders that they saw (except for the mighty herds of "buffaloe" and the Eye of the Needle).

And thanks to the 2-year-old monument designation, Americans 200 years from now will have a shot at the same experience.

So dance, all you Lewis and Clark fans. Sing songs of adventure and give the first of many speeches honoring the bravery and cleverness of Capts. Clark and Lewis.

And at day's end, hoist a dram of grog to honor the preservation of this last great taste of what the expedition tasted: The Missouri River Breaks.