The Yellowstone River

The board's great debate ended at 4:18 p.m. on December 15, 1978. With coal production swelling and one plan foreseeing forty-two coal-fired power plants on the river, the 1974 Yellowstone moratorium froze large new water uses in the basin for three years. The Board of Natural Resources and Conservation then reserved about 5.5 million acre-feet a year at Sidney for instream flow, roughly 80 percent of the average flow there. The highway beside the river here is I-94, not the board's I-90. The board was photographed in 2020, before the rest area's rehabilitation.

What the plaque says

The Yellowstone River Interstate 90 generally follows the Yellowstone River from Glendive to Livingston, Montana. This river originates south of Yellowstone National Park and terminates when it joins the Missouri River north of here. It is the longest undammed river in the lower 48 states. When the West was won, most rivers were lost to damming and dewatering. This river is the exception; it remains wet, wild and dam-free over its entire length. The Yellowstone flows free for over 650 miles, draining a watershed greater in area than all of the New England states combined. In the 1970s Montanans held a great debate over this mighty river's future. When the dust settled, the state reserved a substantial amount of water to remain instream so that the Yellowstone might never be depleted and might forever remain free- flowing. Other uses of the river - municipal, agricultural and industrial - are also provided for. Today, this waterway is in balance with all its users, including nature's creatures. Few American rivers can still make that claim.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Makoshika State Park — 19 mi
  Montana's largest state park, a badland on the edge of Glendive where the rock shows the end of the age of dinosaurs.

More markers nearby

• The Red-Capped Hills of Eastern Montana — steps away
• Glendive — 19 mi
• The Powder River — 22 mi