LEWIS AND CLARK BLACK EAGLE FALLS
N 47° 31.173 W 111° 15.439
12T E 480627 N 5262934
LEWIS AND CLARK BLACK EAGLE FALLS, MONTANA
Waymark Code: WMYVK
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 11/17/2006
Published By:
RB2
Views: 71
On the afternoon of 14 June, 1805, proceeding two and one-half miles upriver from the "Cascade of 14 feet 7 in. in descent" (later named Colter Falls), Lewis arrived at the uppermost cascade.
"This is not immediately perpendicular, a rock about 1/3 of it's decent seems to protrude to a small distance and receives the water in it's passage downwards and gives a curve to the water tho' it falls mostly with a regular and smooth sheet. the river is near six hundred yards wide at this place, a beautifull level plain on the S. side only a few feet above the level of the pitch; on the N. side where I am the country is More broken and immediately behind me near the river a high hill."
His next discovery provided absolute confirmation that he and Clark had made the right decision at the mouth of Maria's River, three days before. Finally he had found the evidence the Hidatsas had told them of.
"Below this fall at a little distance a beautifull little Island well timbered is situated about the middle of the river. in this Island on a Cottonwood tree an Eagle has placed her nest; a more inaccessable spot I believe she could not have found; for neither man nor beast dare pass those gulfs which separate her little domain from the shores".
Captain William F. Reynolds, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, passing this way in command of a U.S. government expedition in 1860, reported that there was still an eagle's nest in a cottonwood tree on the island. Moreover, he observed a specimen of "this peculiarly American bird" perched in a nearby tree, and thought it might be the very same bird Lewis had seen 55 years before.
1. That is remotely possible, considering at least one captive black eagle is thought to have lived nearly fifty years during the mid-twentieth century, but the average age, even in 1805, was at least somewhat less.
2. In 1872 an engineer named Thomas P. Roberts led a party of seven men on a government-sponsored expedition down the Missouri from Three Forks to Fort Benton to ascertain the river's suitability for commercial navigation by light-draft steamboats. Roberts similarly noted an eagle's nest in the remains of an old cottonwood on the island, and also saw a bald eagle. Getting a close look at it, he "had a good opportunity to judge the age of the bird, his feathers being soiled, torn, and otherwise old looking," and concluded it probably was the same bird Lewis had seen. "The sight of this eagle was to me one of the most peculiarly pleasant incidents of our reconnaissance."
"Must Sees"at this location":
GREAT FALLS (TOWN), BLACK EAGLE FALLS, SIGNATURE DISK, NEW LEWIS AND CLARK INTERPRETIVE CENTER.
Date Waymark Created: 11/17/2006
Do they allow dogs at this location?: Don't Know
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