Camp Disappointment

The two monuments here disagree about which way Lewis was facing. The railroad's 1925 stone calls the camp the farthest point west of his Marias trip; the state's panel calls it the farthest point north of the whole expedition, which it was. Lewis lingered on Cut Bank Creek from July 22 to 26, 1806, hoping for a clear sky to fix his latitude, and rain and cloud beat him. The next morning, on the Two Medicine River, his men killed two young Piikani, one of them Side Hill Calf, the only Native people the expedition killed.

What the plaque says

July 26 1806 Farthest point west on Capt Lewis trip up the Marias River Camp Disappointment The monument on the hill above was erected by the Great Northern Railway in 1925 to commemorate the farthest point north reached by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804 - 1806. Captain Meriwether Lewis, with three of his best men, left the main party at the Missouri River and embarked on a side trip to explore the headwaters of the Marias River. He hoped to be able to report to President Jefferson that the headwaters arose north of the 49th parallel, thus extending the boundaries of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. The party camped on the Cut Bank River July 22-25, 1806, in a "beautifull and extensive bottom." Deep in the territory of the dreaded Blackfeet, the men were uneasy. Lewis wrote, "game of every discription is extreemly wild which induces me to believe the indians are now, or have been lately, in this neighbourhood." Lewis could see from here that the river arose to the west rather than the north, as he had hoped. Disheartened by this discovery, by the cold, rainy weather, and by the shortage of game, Lewis named this farthest point north Camp Disappointment, the actual site of which is four miles directly north of this monument.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Plains Indian — 11 mi
  A federal museum on the Blackfeet Reservation whose walls were painted by a Blackfeet muralist in its first year.

More markers nearby

• Chief Mountain and Old North Trail — 9.1 mi
• The Blackfeet Nation — 10 mi
• Old Agency 1880-1894 — 12 mi
• The 564th Missile Squadron — 22 mi