... all in blume ... - Big Timber, Montana
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member T0SHEA
N 45° 49.464 W 109° 57.918
12T E 580372 N 5075057
Crazy Mountain Museum is where this flora informational sign is displayed. Just to the right as you walk to the entrance. The museum is open after Memorial Day. It is located at 2 South Frontage Road.
Waymark Code: WM17GFK
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 02/17/2023
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member ZenPanda
Views: 0
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition marker is on I-90 Frontage Road near U.S. 191. This marker is in the garden at the Crazy Mountain Museum. The museum is located at the end of the frontage road on the south side of Interstate 90. Goes below Sweet Grass County including Big Timber has an average elevation: 1,244 m. Big Timber is surrounded on three sides by the Crazy Mountains and the Absaroka Beartooths, and the prairies lie to the east. Beautiful views of the mountains with native grasslands.
Big Timber is located in south-central Montana bordered by the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers and is the gateway to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and has some of the best blue-ribbon trout fishing in the state.


Big Timber is the county seat of Sweet Grass County and the population was 1,650 at the 2020.

History of Big Timber, Montana
Captain William Clark led The Corps of Discovery into what is now Sweet Grass County in 1806, but it wasn’t until 1883, and the Northern Pacific Railroad came through, that Big Timber (formerly named Dornix) was born. A railroad station was constructed at Dornix, a small settlement at the confluence of the Boulder and Yellowstone rivers, whose economy revolved around a saw mill. Within a very short time, Dornix moved to higher ground and renamed Big Timber for the large cottonwood trees growing along the rivers. Big Timber was within the Crow Indian reservation lands until 1891 when the Crow Nation ceded their lands west of the Boulder River to the United States Government.

In 1880, two Irishmen, Charles McDonnell, and Edward Veasey drove 3,000 head of sheep from California to Montana, beginning a long history of sheep and cattle ranching in the area.

In 1901 the first woolen mill in Montana was built in Big Timber, and at one time Big Timber shipped more wool than any other city in the United States. While farming and ranching are still the backbones of the area, platinum/palladium mining has become a major contributor to the economy.

Crazy Mountain Museum opened its doors in 1992 and hosts a festival each Memorial Day.

The Crazy Mountain Museum houses a collection of artifacts and exhibits range from archeological and geological finds to the Pioneer Room featuring early settlers and their families. Also featured is a replica of 1907 Big Timber, Jack Hines paintings of Sweet Grass County called Historic Crossroads, a replica Norwegian stabbur, a tipi, a one room schoolhouse, the widely-acclaimed gardens.

There are several signs along the garden paths that tell the history of Lewis and Clark.


Lewis and Clark
National Historic Trail
Big Timber, Montana





Sign:
President Thomas Jefferson's passion for botany fueled his instructions to Meriwether Lewis to notice "the soil and face of the country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially those not in the U.S. ...the date at which particular plants put forth or lose their flowers or leaf." During the expedition Meriwether Lewis and William Clark collected 178 plants new to science. Most of these plants are now found at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"observe the Silkgrass, Sunflower & Wild indigo all in blume."
William Clark July 16, 1806

Indians taught the explorers to forage for plant berries and roots.
Several "new" plants were named for Meriwether Lew & William Clark.

Illustrated plants:
Serviceberry
Amelanchier alnifolia
Also known as Juneberry or Sarvisberry

Silver Buffaloberry
Shepherdia argentea

Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa
Montana State Tree
Indians burned the center of these tree to make canoes.

Cottonwood
Populus app.
These lofty trees saved the day throughout the expedition by providing shade, shelter, furniture, wagon wheels, dugout canoes, and firewood.

Blue Flax
Linum lewisii

Lewis' Monkeyflower
Mimulus lewisii

Bitterroot
Lewisia redivide
Montana's state flower was named for Meriwether Lewis.
The specimen Lewis collected was taken to Philadelphia by horse, boat, and stagecoach.

Golden Currant
Ribes anreum
"I found great quantities of the Purple, yellow & black currents ripe. they were of an excellent flavor. I think the purple Superior to any I have ever tasted."
William Clark July 18 1806

Chokecherry
prunus Virginian
The expedition used this wood to make ax handles.

Camas Lily
Camassia quomash

Mockorange
Philadelphus lewisii

Elkhorns
Clarkia pulchella
Noted for its (illegible) resemble an elks antlers.
Describe the area and history:
The sign and most of the pants are along the garden pathway.
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