Trailhead Tribute

Cheryl Hutchinson of Hardy Creek was honored with a plaque at the Trailhead to Tower Rock State Park, located immediately off Hardy Creek, Exit 247 on Interstate 15, midway between Cascade and Craig. Tower Rock is managed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

Ms. Hutchinson was instrumental in preventing the land from being auctioned off as “state surplus property” in 2000. It is considered a sacred place to the Native people and is recognized as an important part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. She also donated a bench to the park that was placed in the approximate location of Lewis’s “pensive perch” on July 16, 1805, with the idea that in 20, 50, 100, or 200 years, some young person might hike up there and look back to see what Lewis and Clark saw “at the point where the Missouri River first enters the Rocky Mountains.” The bench was dedicated “to mothers of any era or ethnicity who teach their children about plant life.”

The names of three women, in particular, were engraved on the bench: to Sacajawea’s OOM BEE’AH (mother), recorded by the U.S. census as “unknown,” who taught Sacajawea the value of plants; to Lucy Thornton Meriwether Marks, mother of Lewis Meriwether and an herbalist in Virginia; and to Charlotte Morris Hutchinson, Cheryl Hutchinson’s own mother, whose question, “What were Lewis and Clark doing between Great Falls and Helena?” inspired her to become an expert in Lewis and Clark history between Ulm and Wolf Creek.