Our #conservationlands15 celebration continues tomorrow with trails to blaze on the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. We preview the journey today, when in 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition started westward on the Missouri River. The journey included stops along the now BLM-managed Pompeys Pillar and Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana.

Experience the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument and enrich your heart and soul. From wood hawkers, riverboat captains, and bullwhackers to paddlefish, sturgeon, and bighorn sheep, we keep stories alive! Our center is located in Fort Benton, Mont., and exhibits the grandeur and wonder of the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River and the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. From hands-on exhibits and special educational programs to a relaxing riverside walking trail, our facility tells about the area’s cultural and natural history.

The mighty Missouri is always flowing, slowly carving and shaping the land and the people who have called this area home. Westward settlement in this emerging nation made this river one of the most significant routes of expansion. Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery marveled at “scenes of visionary enchantment” and the now-famous White Cliffs of the Missouri. Steamboats laden with fortune seekers, miners, and people “mining the miners” sealed Fort Benton’s fate as the “world’s innermost port.” Nez Perce Indians crossed this river in 1877, fleeing the U.S. Army and exile to reservation lands. All this happened while ancient fish, some in existence since the age of dinosaurs, still clung to life in these murky waters.

Photos by Bob Wick, BLM